NOISEY 120: HOUSSE de RACKET

Housse de Racket is a humorous play on words between a tennis racket cover, their 'house' made, autonomous production technique and 'racketter’ (French slang for mugging), as the house music borrows from other music musical styles. French duo are Pierre Leroux and Victor le Masne, both originally from Chaville, a town between Versailles and Paris where half the land is made up of forest.

When I saw them play on a bitingly cold night in Paris last year, the enthusiasm amongst the crowd was enviable. My choice of entertainment for the evening had been seriously put into question on anticipating my walk up a never ending hill from the Metro to the Belleville bar where they were scheduled to play. Two tracks in and I was beginning to feel my toes again. There was an unexpected vibrancy to their sound that was warming me from the inside out, to say it justified the freezing journey would be putting it lightly.

Their sound can be loosely pinned on their long standing appreciation of Stevie Wonder’s american funk, the Beatles pop melodies, and Serge Gainsbourg or even Edith Piaf’s chanson française, many of whom they reference in 2008's sanguine hit 'Oh Yeah!'. The easiest comparisons however, remain their French Touch contemporaries. Having first met at school, they made friends through their mutual appreciation of Pearl Jam, with both later playing as session musicians for local bands Phoenix and Air. Their newest release however, is proving a firm reminder that the French Touch sound, pioneered by artists such as Daft Punk, Cassius and Sebastian Tellier, has evolved and can still hold it's own.

Of their distinct synth pop, most memorable are the pop hooks and chorus's, always in French. Their rock influenced debut, Forty Love, was released in 2008 but it's 2011's follow up, Alésia, that is placing them on the map. They teamed up with former Phoenix producer Philippe Zdar after signing to Parisien label Kitsuné, home to Metronomy, Fischerspooner and Cut Copy, eloquently summing their production choice as “who better than Phoenix’s producer to keep us away from the sound of Phoenix?".