FK + DFP - The Nassau Excursion
François Kevorkian and Dimitri From Paris join forces for a release inspired by their joint love of disco and boogie-era dance records made at Island Records’ Compass Point Studio in the Bahamas.
Some 30 years after they first met in the DJ booth of Tokyo’s Spacelab Yellow nightclub, close friends François Kevorkian and Dimitri From Paris have finally joined forces in the studio. The result is The Nassau Excursion, a dazzlingly good three-track EP inspired by their joint love of disco and boogie-era dance records made at Island Records’ Compass Point Studio in the Bahamas.
Due for release in late February on Rush Hour, you can stream The Compass Point (Short Edit) whilst you read through the article below.
François and Dimitri’s friendship was first forged through long conversations about disco, dance music history, and the artists, producers, studio engineers and remixers who inspire them. Over the years, this relationship has deepened further, with Dimitri considering François – an original disco-era NYC DJ, producer and remixer – as much a mentor as a friend. It’s no coincidence that some of Dimitri’s breakthrough remixes of the 1990s breathed new life into old Prelude Records tracks – cuts originally signed and mixed for the dancefloor by François during a spell working for the now legendary New York label.
The Nassau Excursion pays tribute to this period of François’ career, and specifically the time he spent working on releases at Compass Point alongside the studio’s legendary rhythm section, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, and keyboard maestro Wally Badarou. While all manner of artists recorded at Compass Point, it’s the revolutionary, electrofunk-era dub disco records crafted there – killer cuts from the likes of Grace Jones, Ian Dury, Gwen Guthrie, Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club – which changed the shape and sound of dance music.
Across three essential tracks, François and Dimitri explore and celebrate this distinctive Caribbean post-disco sound – one where weighty basslines and heavy drum machine beats rub shoulders with early ‘80s synths, dub-style production, heady hand percussion patterns and arrangements drenched in space echo and tape delay.
Opener ‘The Compass Point’, featuring Dimitri’s regular collaborator DJ Rocca, is an expressive and fiendishly dubbed-out exploration of this distinctive sound – think echo-laden vocal snippets, thickset synth bass, D-Train style echoing keyboard motifs, jazz-funk flecked Wally Badarou riffs, colourful chords, dubbed-out congas and punchy drum machine beats, expertly arranged to include the kind of stylistic mixing traits and dancefloor dub tropes liberally employed by François and Dimitri over the course of their careers.
On ‘2 Da Riddim’, they doff a cap to Grace Jones’ anthem ‘Pull Up To The Bumper’, brilliantly wrapping Hubert Eaves III style synth flourishes and tactile pads around a Robbie Shakespeare style bassline and hot-stepping electrofunk drums. The duo signs off in style with ‘Steppers Revenge’, tough slab of steppers reggae/dub disco fusion that pairs the low-end hardness and heaviness of bleep-era Rob Gordon productions with echoing guitar licks, flashes of organ, poignant piano motifs and a suitably sizeable bassline. It’s a fine conclusion to a collaborative EP 30 years in the making.
You can pre-order the full three-track 12” and digital due for release on 27th February here.
