Supermassive: Black Strobe

Time and time again us music journalists are criticised for taking focus off the music, delving too deeply into musicians lives, their appearance and their behaviour. However, upon interviewing one half of Black Strobe, Ivan Smagghe, we had no choice but to place more focus on their new - and very good – ‘Remix Selection’ rather than the thoughts of Smagghe himself. An extremely busy man and successful DJ in his own right he may be, but doesn’t seem the most talkative of fellows as our questions are returned with blunt, distracted answers. It almost makes it hard to believe that he is the same person that interviewed the likes of Andrew Weatherall and Coldcut for Radio Nova in his years with the cutting edge station. But we hear that French people do a lot of shrugging and use gestures when communicating, so maybe a lot of that business was going on during our online interrogation.

Consisting of Smagghe and Arnaud Rebotini, Black Strobe have released their 'Remix Selection' as they gain momentum for the 2007 release of their debut album. Their latest release sees the Rebotini take on a role as vocalist as the Black Strobe stamp is placed on a diverse range of tracks old and new, from Bloc Party’s ‘Like Eating Glass’ to Depeche Mode’s ‘Something to Do’. “Remixes are a great game,” says Smagghe. Seeing as they touch on indie, rock and electro house amongst others, did they aim to put their trademark on most of the popular genres out there? “I suppose you always do, but we do not think in terms of genre really. It is more a short time relation to one track or one band, a moment where you can play with your own sound without the pressure of assuming it fully as it is not really your own work or within the boundaries of someone else’s.”

Influenced by the unique combination of Slayer and Detroit techno, the Black Strobe partnership was formed as a one off project out of a rebellion from the French filtered disco sound back in the mid-90’s. Meeting around the mid-80s through a shared love of goth rock and then working in the ‘dance’ section at Rough Trade in the 90s, they briefly entered the dance scene before occupying themselves with solo projects. Smagghe became a resident at Le Pulp’s ‘Kill The DJ’ night at his native Paris and produced a string of impressive releases, including a Fabric mix and ‘Suck My Deck’ for Bugged Out. Meanwhile, Rebotini took a more covert path, becoming a highly respected producer and more recently, a DJ with a growing reputation.