walking upstream…
Bob Sinclar
photo: georges biard · cc by-sa 3.0 ↗Bob Sinclar
Christophe Le Friant spent the late 1980s as a hip-hop-loving Parisian bedroom DJ calling himself Chris the French Kiss before reinventing himself as Bob Sinclar and becoming one of French house's most unlikely pop crossovers. He built a career on filtering disco's warmest strings and deepest bass through a house producer's ear, turning half-forgotten seventies records — including an entire catalogue he remixed for his hero Cerrone — into globe-conquering singles like Love Generation and World, Hold On. Three decades in, he's still chasing the peace-love-and-house-music optimism he first found digging through disco bins as a young DJ.
the sound in question
2005
Love GenerationBob Sinclar
walk the tributaries ↓
Cerrone1970s · Disco / Euro disco / Funk / Electronic
Sinclar didn't just admire Cerrone from a distance — he sampled him directly on I Feel for You, then spent a summer remixing Cerrone's entire back catalogue into the 2001 compilation Cerrone by Bob Sinclar. That direct working relationship, more than any other disco figure, shaped how Sinclar has described his whole method: recycling disco 'with a different feeling, with filters.'
listen: upstream & here
1978
Look for LoveCerrone
2000
I Feel for YouBob Sinclar
listen forCue up the extended coda of Look for Love and listen for the exact string-and-bass hook Sinclar loops and filters into I Feel for You — he isn't covering the song, he's sampling that one section outright and dressing it in house drums.
Todd Terry1980s–1990s · House / Garage house / Hip house
Sinclar has said that discovering, on early trips to New York, that Todd Terry was playing house and hip-hop records in the same DJ sets is what sent him back to buy the original disco and funk records being sampled — the crate-digging, know-your-history side of his whole career traces back to that discovery.
listen: upstream & here
1988
Bango (To The Batmobile)Todd Terry
2006
World, Hold On (Children of the Sky)Bob Sinclar
listen forListen to how Bango (To the Batmobile) chops a conga break and a stray vocal snippet into a hypnotic house loop, then play World, Hold On (Children of the Sky) — Sinclar applies that same sample-and-loop house logic, just polished for festival mainstages instead of warehouse parties.
Chic1970s · Disco / Funk / R&B
Sinclar has named the mid-'70s 'Roller Disco' moment — Chic chief among it — as the classic sound his own collection of 7-inches, 12-inches, and albums was built to chase; that clean, string-and-bass disco elegance is the raw material underneath his own filter-house records.
listen: upstream & here
1979
Good TimesChic
2004
Gym TonicBob Sinclar
listen forPlay Good Times and lock onto that unhurried, chugging guitar-and-bass groove, then put on Gym Tonic — Sinclar (working alongside Thomas Bangalter) chases that same disciplined, groove-first disco feel, just with a shouted workout-tape sample on top instead of Chic's vocals.