Daft Punk & 7 Other Great French House Acts: From Dmitri From Paris To Justice

With all the fanfare surrounding their comeback smash “Get Lucky” and this week’s release of Random Access Memories, it’s easy to forget that French house ambassadors Daft Punk have been around for nearly two decades. Thanks to a sound that’s always been ahead of the curve (and robot helmets to mask any wrinkles), the duo of Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter seem positively ageless more than 15 years after they first wowed us with their debut, Homework. That they’re still managing to surprise and influence the international pop scene is a testament to their distinctive retro-futuristic groove!

That groove, however, wasn’t created by Daft Punk alone. French House (or French Touch, as the sexy call it) has its roots in the clubs of Paris, where DJs and dance music disciples found inspiration in old Europop and space-disco records and mashed them up with state-of-the-art beats. Basically, when it came to making booties bounce along the Champs Elysee, Daft Punk didn’t act alone! So get your Gallic groove on and pay tribute to the forebears of French Funk with our terribly chic playlist below. Tout le monde danse maintenant!

Stardust, “Music Sounds Better With You” The grandaddy of all modern dance records, “Music”’s hot-dogging bassline, filtered beats and rhythmic samples proved absolutely irresistible to the club-going throngs of 1998. Deftly cutting up Chaka Khan’s “Fate” like a line of coke in a Studio 54 balcony, Stardust’s producers (Alan Braxe and one-half of Daft Punk, Thomas Bangalter) rode the success of their one hit into a thousand mash-ups, most famously with Madonna’s “Holiday” for her Drowned World Tour.