Deep house Parisian pairing ‘The Mekanism’ celebrate disco, techno and every electronic genre in between with their clean, minimal sounds.
Operating under The Mekanism moniker for little over a year, Damien Roussel and Raphael Cesario worked independently in booths, basement clubs, legal and illegal raves the world over before deciding to team up after hearing one another’s sounds. The crossover point between the boys’ signature sets is their understated approach to building a track up until the rhythm drops. Sexy, sultry, moody and melodic, their music starts with a loop and ends, unequivocally, on a high. Not taking what they do too seriously, their techniques are natural and the progressive builds they construct feel easy and organic. i-D online caught up with the Sleep-Deep-signed dons to chat more about their mechanical processes and big ideas.
What are your backgrounds in music?
R: We don’t have exactly the same background, Damien has been a DJ for more than 10 years, he has got some good production skills.
D: Raphael has been into production since 2006 and started experimenting with mixes after, we think very differently about music.
Can you talk us through the process behind your mixes?
R: We don’t have specific roles, but Damien is more into finding new sounds and starting on a loop.
D: Raphael works on the production. But there is no specific role, so we don’t tend to be to focussed on assigning each other tasks.
What is the mood like when you’re working together in the studio?
D: When we’re working in the studio we just sit and do what we like. We never try to fit to a specific genre because we don’t want to limit our creativity. We are not too serious and we just do what we like so it all comes naturally.
Which other artists do you listen to?
D: We listen all kind of music, and artists. Of course we listen a lot of promos from the deep house scene but not a specific genre.
R: We’re big fan of our friends like Mario Basanov, Adana Twins, Adriatique, Hot Since 82, Nicolas, NTFO, Martin Augustin, Toky and Amine Edge are all the good artists making awesome music today.
How do you want people to feel when they listen to your music?
R: We just want them to feel good, to associate our music with the best moment of their life! It will bring them nice memories if they listen our tracks in the future.
What are your plans for the Summer?
R: We’ll mix in a few places like Russia, Ibiza and London. It’s a bit soon for us to announce some dates as it’s not all confirmed but check our Facebook page, it will be dropped soon.
Who are the top unsigned DJ’s you would suggest we watch out for?
D: All that we know is that Real Birds are going to release some massive stuff on Sleazy Deep so check this out!
Text: Milly McMahon
