1997: while the filtered house of the French Touch flounders in its death throes, “Paris Acid City” by Black Strobe, a long, meandering acid track - melancholic and laced with poison - helps reintroduce house music into clubs. With techno lacking direction, electroclash expanding to be the noughties version of 80s new wave, and a disco revival hovering on the horizon, Black Strobe's heavy loops - think Moroder dipped in tar - and electronic riffs with a hard rock tinge are building the foundations of a certain sound and style, flashes of lightning and mirror balls that are to become, many years later, the musical vocabulary of the French Touch 2.0.
