Well, it would have been difficult not to comment on the latest compilation Meilleurs Vœux (Forever) from Casual Gabberz which is bowing out after 10 years of existence doing two, or three important things in the party and elsewhere. We assume here a very personal vision of Casuel Gabberz, this is what interested us in it and why we have listened to, seen, and played all these pieces over the last ten years.
The news is what it is, and it is difficult to ignore it, what is certain is that by opening the space to a permanent mash-up between Gabber, Hardcore and Rap from all horizons Casual Gabberz has created a breach in a world at night that is sometimes very polite and very bourgeois under its air of permanent transgression and neoliberal inclusiveness. Personally, I remember coming across Casual Gabberz like everyone else with Evil Grimace and “3 Litres” (de Vodka) which I found grating and not very politically correct, but which I was quick to revisit afterwards many times. At the time I lived in one of the most right-wing cities in France, with a former motorcycle champion mayor where on the tram we heard racist remarks before 7 a.m., so it made sense to be angry. Afterwards, I played and replayed the L.O.A.S remix so many times (editor’s note “VLV (RER E Remix)”) that I quickly stopped counting, we were in the middle of a social movement, with police brutality never seen since the prefect and collabo Papon and a government washing its hands of repression, it was the perfect sound for the moment.
It’s also important to note that 9 or 10 years ago, we were still heavily into Concrete sets and German 130 BPMs, so when in France, in addition to “Neo-Vogue Music”, compilations of NAAFI, and the beginnings of “Deconstructed Club Music”, we get “Frapcore” in our heads, well it feels really good. Some parties were emerging, promoters that take charge of parties that care about everyone and that shake up the electronic scenes. No need to feel like you’re in a business school student uniform anymore, it was quite liberating. No need to feel bourgeois and bohemian anymore, that’s also what a hell of a liberation! No need to feel like an intramural Parisian anymore, even greater liberation!
So here’s Casual Gabberz they arrived there like that suddenly, by mixing French Rap and Gabber, they created something called Frapcore and it freed a lot of people to feel ok to go out to club. And they also brought people back from the free parties, they created a real thing. They have never avoided the social and political movements, loi travail, gilets jaune, retraite, police violence, the rise of the extreme right and fascism, and all this in an environment where the children of the bourgeoisie were until then hegemonic and they are probably still.
There’s not much more to say, except that this compilation is ultra cool, including a crazy bootleg remix with Diam’s in it. And then also to say that without Casual Gabberz collectives like Southfrap Alliance or Shtelameï would probably not have seen the light of day in the same way, that is to say, if it has a product after all.
Casual Gabberz is a whole generation of producers that we will find in our clubs and festivals, it is also an anthology compilation always available which mixes a lot of what makes the electronic scene today, Inutile de Fuir, and a piece of music that will live, we hope, for a long time, as open as possible and as political as necessary in a more than terrible climate, so bella ciao, let’s be consistent and “hardcore jusqu’à la mort”.
