Tophee Cheesecake - Smack My Killing Spirit (Crowdpleasing Bullshit Mix)

Ever noticed how some 14 to 20 years after their initial release, many D.J.'s still find apt to play The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up", Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name" and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" ? Very fine tracks for sure in my book, and still very efficient on a dancefloor to this day, which goes to show how wonderfully crafted they were in the first place. Still, I've decided to mash up all 3 and see what I'd get as the ultimate crowdpleasing record. It doesn't work so wonderfully, I admit, and I have only worked a couple of hours on it, so basically, this is like a semi-pisstake jab at those uninspired D.J.'s, the ones going for the easy tricks. ;)

Download

New track coming out soon on Bit-Phalanx

Just finished a new track for the next Bit-Phalanx compilation due later this summer. Probably one of the hardest-sounding tracks I've ever made, based on old stems, so it's keeping a bit of an old school flavour with some newer elements added to it. Somewhat dark and fun at the same time... you'll see what I mean. ;) I suggest however that you watch your volume level on headphones and keep your limiter on for your speakers' sake. Those industrial snares slam *hard*. ^^

Prince - Cloreen Bacon Skin (Topher Re-Edit)

Watch this space ! I just finished editing this fantastic Prince jam down to 8'30", making it more dancefloor-friendly and focused than the original 15'37" version. I tried to preserve the best bits of the vocal improv... Of course die-hard fans might cringe as they notice the bits that have been left out, but it's bound to happen when you reduce a track by nearly 50% its length ! ;) Anyway, none of it will be noticeable to anyone else.
I have one last issue to deal with: to beatmatch or not to beatmatch ? I'm a bit afraid to kill the funk of it (which would be a damn shame considering the nature of the track), so I'm gonna try out the different possibilities and edit this post when the track is ready for download. Give it a bit of time though as I have more urgent tracks in the works... :)

Tophee Cheesecake - Rollerskates

Remix of Melanie Safka's U.S. #1 hit "Brand New Key" from 1971. Commissioned for the Braindance! forum rollerdisco compilation entitled "Rexing Classics". Music to rollerskate to ! Available for free on the Bit-Phalanx netlabel along with 17 other rollerskate-related contributions from various artists.

Topher - Bombin' Brooklyn

A 23-minute soundscape recreating a graffiti artist's journey across Brooklyn to find spots he can "bomb" with his spray can. Contains a sample from "Art Of Drums (Rap Version)" performed by Mac Attack. This piece was commissioned as ambience for an exhibit dedicated to urban culture called "Urban-Inside" taking place at Le Module in Saint-Laurent Du Var, France from September 25th until December 31st, 2010.

Download

Tophee Cheesecake - Guettalife

Audio collage meant to reflect David Guetta's arrogance and lack of music education. Out soon on CD along with 18 remixes from other artists from the south of France to protest against the outrageous town hall subsidies spent on his coming to Nice (think six figures) when the city grants only a tiny fraction of that ludicrous amount to local music associations over the whole year.

Download

All my DJ mixes now on Mixcloud

Today, I have officially chosen Mixcloud as my favorite webhost for my DJ mixes ! The ones I had previously posted on Topher.fr are now re-linked to Mixcloud and you can definitely expect many more mixes from me this year. Quite a handy website as there is no upload limit ! Does need a few features and touch-ups here and there to make it even better, but already stands as a serious contender for Soundcloud (where my audio collages and live sets will remain for the time being). Stay tuned ! :)

More Ligeti updates

This afternoon, Mike Paradinas (a.k.a. µ-Ziq) e-mailed me the AIFF version of his exclusive Droops track after he found it on one of his external hard drives. I'm quite happy about that as I had been offering a 256 kbps mp3 version of it for the past 2 1/2 years, but it is now finally available on the site for all to hear and to download in 320 kbps mp3 and FLAC, for free of course, like all other contributions (27 so far). By the way, many thanks again to all featured artists. :)

On a related note, the Visuals section is now fully up and running. I don't have too much time these days to dedicate to the Ligeti tribute, but please keep sending your contributions. I will process them and notify you once they're online. Make sure you read the FAQ before you send me anything though !

More wicked tracks coming up this spring - stay tuned !^^

György Ligeti Tribute - Visual Contributions open !

Back in June 2008, I received an e-mail from Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca, a visual artist renowned for his artwork for Detroit greats such as Jeff Mills, Juan Atkins, Los Hermanos & Underground Resistance, but also for François Kevorkian, collaborations with Overton Loyd (artwork designer for Parliament/Funkadelic), Hideki Nakajima (artwork designer for Ryuichi Sakamoto), the Nat King Cole Re:Generations cover project (featuring Will.I.Am, Cut Chemist, Bebel Gilberto, Nas, TV On The Radio, etc.) and the John & Alice Coltrane Foundation.
Clearly an impressive and interesting resumé, but it turns out the e-mail ended up in my junk mail and I only discovered it about a week ago, looking for something else ! Gustavo was asking me if he could submit a visual contribution to the Ligeti project. So I replied (20 months later !) and Gustavo's enthusiasm conveyed to me the idea of opening a section dedicated to visual artists. Not only graphic designers and painters but also video artists.
So if you are one of the above and Ligeti's music has influenced your art, I'd be most pleased to hear from you ! The contributions will appear as thumbnails below each contributor's name with options to zoom in and enlarge and to download the work in hi-res. Gustavo is, of course, the first contributor and we are going to try to get more people interested in this. I'm now collecting all the works that will be sent to me via the contact form on the Ligeti page and I hope to get the "Visuals" section up and running by March with already a few works to check out ! ;)

Posthuman - Lander (Topher Remix)

My remix for the awesome Posthuman is now complete ! Slowed it down to 120 bpm with many Juno Alpha "hoover" sounds that I find reminiscing of very early Frank De Wulf tracks, and a lot of freehand editing which may sometimes mess with the tempo a bit, but helping keep the track purposely raw. I'm not sure everyone will get this but I think most 20plus-year old-schoolers should like it as much as I do. :)

Not sure if Posthuman's plans are to release it anytime soon (if at all !) so I won't make it available here (unless it's rejected). In any case, you can always go ahead and give it a listen at my MySpace page for the time being. ;)

György Ligeti Tribute update

The day after the famous composer György Ligeti died in June 2006, I started the idea of a tribute from experimental electronic artists. µ-Ziq, one of the renowned pioneers of UK electronica, was the first one to send me a track, which I reckon helped pave the way for more contributions to come. The project was launched online on June 13th, 2007, the same day it was initiated, for the first anniversary of Ligeti's death, and is still ongoing to this day, counting 27 brilliant artists rallied to the cause so far, from Rapoon, the pioneer of industrial ambient since the early 80's with his band Zoviet France, to emerging artists such as +10 who is now on Rephlex as Jodey Kendrick, or KiNK, one of the unavoidable figures of the new electronic dance scene for many D.J.'s around the world.

Today, and after some time spent chasing down some of the master recordings, I have finally made all the tracks collected so far available for download in 320kbps mp3 and FLAC lossless format. All but µ-Ziq's which shall remain in 256 kbps until he gets his hands back on the master recording (which unfortunately sounds very unlikely...).

Also, the project has just been accepted by the mighty Discogs website as a proper netlabel, thus procuring it and its unknown artists a somewhat more official presence in the world of recorded music.

The tracks are all available for free on my website and the contributions are always welcome. Just make sure you read the FAQ section of the site before submitting any.

Tophee Cheesecake's Christmas Mash-Up Mix

A wacky 1-hour Christmas mash-up medley !
It's mellow, it's heavy, it's straight, it's gay, it's cheerful, it's depressive - but mainly, it's Christmassy !^^

Tracklist - Download

HK119 - C'est La Vie (Topher's Life And Everything Therein Remix)

Remix for One Little Indian-signed artist HK119. Available from now on for free on the magnificent Bit-Phalanx netlabel with 6 other remixes from various artists. More HK119 remixes coming out on One Little Indian in early 2010.








Download the full EP from Bit-Phalanx

**ONLINE SOON** Hula - Hot Hands (Topher's Beatmatch Edit)
"Hot Hands" is a classic, groovy, crunchy, sexy, relentless, underground acid track by Hula that originally came out on the Acid Trax Vol. 2 compilation on Trax Records in 1988. This track was never given a proper official single release. DJ's who have tried to play it know what a pain it is to beatmatch properly as Hula starts/stops the pattern manually several times throughout, constantly throwing it off track.
In 2005, an unofficial release came out in the Secret Mixes Fixes series that solved the "problem", but unfortunately I think the "fixes" denatured it a bit too much. So here's my take on it, trying to respect the flavor of the original with a bit of mastering trickery added in to give it a bit more oomph. Play it out and by all means keep this classic monster alive ! :)

Falco - Rock Me Amadeus (Topher's Recreated Salieri Radio Edit)

In 1985, I was 11. One of the French regional radio stations I was listening to would sometimes play Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus" - a track that was clearly groundbreaking to me then... Several times, I called them and requested it just so I could make the best sounding tape with no voiceover from the radio show host. Those were the days ! Yet, ever since that time, I've been looking for the version they used to play - clearly edited from the Salieri Club Mix. I've tracked down every version listed on Discogs from the Extended Version to the Can-Am Remix, even got my hands on the original French 7" & 12"... but no... It was never quite the version I once taped from the radio. Maybe it was an obscure promo mix, or one of those then-popular DJ service remixes (although it is neither DMC or Razormaid - I already checked). I guess I will just never know...
So now I own a copy of Falco's CD "3" (U.S. release - which includes the Salieri Club Mix) and some hi-tech software, I thought I could take an hour to recreate it the way I remember it with the help of my precious tape and give it a little remastering boost, not only because this song means a lot to me, but also because I think it can still pack a punch and this is objectively the best radio edit of it ! :)
Download

Bun-E Mash-up Mix (03.09)
Mash-up medley commissioned by Syntheme for her Bun-E netlabel. Unfortunately, everything was lost in a major disk crash. An early draft is all I have left. Some fun bits though... I'm still wondering whether I should re-do it and submit it again or just post the draft... hmm...

Nice And Queasy Hallowe'en Mix

Hallowe'en medley - both silly and gloomy, as it should be.
Tracklist - Download

Nice And Queasy Hallowe'en Mix by Topher on Mixcloud

Mémoires Cannoises Mix

Medley commissioned for the Cannes Starlettes pageant @ Cannes Film Festival and played on the Cannes beach on May 19th 2008. (Soundtracks using female vocals and various film dialogues involving women)
Tracklist - Download

Bouillafest !

Private Room Fashion Show

Medley assembled for the Private Room lingerie fashion show @ Palais des Festivals, Cannes on January 6th, 2008. Designed by Lauranie Perrin. (Ethereal and feminine songs and moods)
Tracklist - Download

GoatLab Radio Interview & Live excerpt from 04.04.07

Full show. Hosted by Parasite & Dan Gusset. Bristol, UK - 11 Dec. 2007
Listen

The Butterfly Ball

Live @ Sunshine Sundays: The Butterfly Ball @ The Pro Cathedral, Bristol, UK - 9 Dec. 2007
Koru-Foru Fashion show curated by Gemma Thorogood & Viva Cazeaux.

Live improvisation on "Yggsdrasil" by Rhythm Of Space. (ethnic, ambient, downtempo, hip hop, glitch)

Vocals & Shruti Box: Juan Gabriel Gutiérrez
Spoken Word Intro & Didgeridoo: Markus Neall
Beats & FX: Topher

Download

Outbreaks ! Party #5: Aries Slant Recordings Netlabel Launch !

Outbreaks ! Party #5 and Aries Slant Recordings netlabel launch !

Sous Les Galets... Le Son !!!

Les 2 Frères

LAST MINUTE CANCELLATION !!

Under Live @ Subway

Outbreaks ! Party #4 !

Ambient Journey Into IDM & Glitchy Breaks Mix

Laptop Mix + FX @ Café Des Arts, Nice, France (07.06.2006)
Tracklist - Download the full mix as one file

Part 1

Ambient Journey Into Idm & Glitchy Breaks Mix 1 by Topher on Mixcloud

Part 2

Ambient Journey Into Idm & Glitchy Breaks Mix 2 by Topher on Mixcloud

Tophee Cheesecake Live !

An absurd cultural mash-up bonanza mangled in breakbeat crossovers spawning shameless copyright infringements galore !

First 30mn recorded on October 19th, 2005 + Last 15mn on May 17th, 2006. Both recorded live in Nice, France.

Download

Outbreaks ! Party #3 !

Outbreaks ! MySpace launch !

Sick and tired of the French Riviera club scene ?
OUTBREAKS ! is committed to bring you a crossover between electronic genres, from ambient to hardcore and everything in between. Electronica, deep trance, minimal, techno, hard techno, old school house and electro, rave, breakbeat, jungle, breakcore, drill 'n' bass and weird stuff...
And don't take all that too seriously... It's supposed to be fun !

Outbreaks ! Party #2 !

Outbreaks Energy Mix

Laptop Mix + FX @ New School Breakz - Nice, France - 14.09.2005 (Breakbeat, Techno, Darkstep, Drill 'n' Bass)
Tracklist - Download

Outbreaks Energy Mix by Topher on Mixcloud

Outbreaks ! Party #1 !

Waldschraten

Improvisation by Tibo Kodak, Kirkit & Topher. Recorded on July 11th, 2005 in Juan-Les-Pins, France. (Avant-garde, Soundscapes, Electroacoustics, Experimental)

Vocoder: Kirkit
Guitar: Tibo Kodak
Synthesizers: Topher

Download

Deep Shades Of Trance Mix

Laptop Mix + FX (25.06.2005) (Deep Trance, Downtempo, Ambient, Experimental, Electronica)

Tracklist - Download

Deep Shades Of Trance Mix by Topher on Mixcloud

Meat Beat Manifesto - Original Control (Stamford / Cornwall Remix)

Remix made for a US Meat Beat Manifesto-approved tribute compilation which unfortunately failed to make it on CD, but which tracks are now hosted for free on the Digital Chemist website along with contributions from the likes of Eight Frozen Modules, Exillon, Basin Jently, and many more atists hailing mostly from the San Francisco Bay area. Since my contribution was originally submitted at 192kbps, this is an exclusive 320kbps rip, but a proper 10th anniversary remastered and enhanced version is in the works (because it badly needs it), so stay tuned ! ;)

Download

Angil - Beeguending

I helped French experimental indie folk prodigy Angil edit and pre-master his *very* lo-fi but nonetheless stellar 3rd album "Beeguending" over the weekend of May 26 & 27th, 2001, with him, at my London home on Stamford St., two months after we met at a Low concert at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. Ah the memories... *sigh*
Some very nice reviews here (in French). Not sure where you can get a copy of it but you can always try to reach him or his label directly.

1986-1996:
Over 300 compositions on Roland D-20 and various Casio synths ! Maybe a few of these old demos online soon. :)