Having always planned to produce a special music report to mark our mini European tour, the idea was to create this nod to a handful of talents that we were to touch during our trip to Paris, Brussels, Antwerp & Amsterdam, while we were there enjoying it all. However, having been caught up in the whole emotions of our escapades, Paris particularly sweeping us away in a tide of unforgettable memories, it meant we had precious little opportunity to set aside enough to time concentrate on the task in hand. Yet as we find ourselves back in blighty and tidying up on our trip, we had to follow through on our promise to focus on those D.J.’s that were to provide that Parisian Pleasure To Belgian Brilliance we had anticipated before taking the Eurostar just under two weeks ago, our journey rearing many more magical music moments than we could have expected. So, with planned inclusions & some surprise additions, this is our special anglo French/Belgian look at the music & the music makers that, planned or unplanned, have earned their place in this special post.

So first to Paris and for those of you eagle eyed lot, it was always the intention to devote a segment of this special post to Bruno Kauffmann, a Parisian resident originally the north eastern town of Nancy, although it would be fair to say this prestigious producer come D.J. has laid his hat in a number of principal places in France, most notably St Tropez & Avignon, the south of France his playground for many years. However, it was Paris where Bruno first started his career as a bright eared & bushy tailed radio D.J. for Parisian radio station, NRJ, soon finding himself thrown into the limelight of a burgeoning clubbing scene in the French capital, a residency at “The Club” soon following, Mr Kauffmann spending seven very happy years there. With his reputation in Paris firmly established, the next big step in his career was a resident slot at the famous “Boy” in the city, although it was clear he wanted to spread the good Kauffmann word much further a-filed, his love & association with the south of France forming an indelible bond in 1994, when he moved to the region, residencies at club’s & events including “La Scala”, “Slave Bar”, “Stephano For Ever” & “Dolly Party” keeping him very busy in this part of the world virtually right up to the present day.

With D.J.ing just one strand of Bruno’s talents, his production work & associations with some of the biggest clubs in France has brought him into contact with a list of well known’s in his field that include such greats as David Guetta, Danny Tenaglia, Lurent Garnier & Charles Schillings, while a long list of fellow French stars have touched his life too. So, adding to his continuing radio shows and his occasional D.J. appearances, is his studio work, both on tracks & compilations which definitely keep the Kauffmann name out there and in the limelight, his discography over the years stretching into treble figures, with an amassed 14 tracks (some subject to multiple remix projects) in just the last six months alone. This on top of a collection of compilations, all showcasing Bruno’s very eclectic genre styles, ranging from disco, through electro, progressive to tech & tribal and even deep into minimal house, hardly a style unturned or a direction overlooked.

So, you can imagine that we were keen to hook up with the man while we were in Paris, but timing meant he was away back in the south of France, for a private party in St Tropez no less, although to our delight has laid down a compilation to mark the occasion, titled “The World Of Noise”, which is just on two hours of triumphant progressive & tech house tunes, well worth a listen via http://soundcloud.com/djbrunokauffmann/dj-bruno-kauffmann-mix-the and a mix very much in the Kauffmann superb style. Weeding out other works from the Bruno stable, track releases “Phasing” & “Boy”, featuring vocals from Caisedo & Loreen Chimenti respectively are his most prolific, between them racking up over 10 remixes, while his “Feel Me” track has been treated in the studio by fellow Parisian Leomeo with his own production partner, Fabrice K and is a corker, all these tracks available at Bruno’s soundcloud site via http://soundcloud.com/djbrunokauffmann/. Plus, with a spring in his step, this year looks like being a busy one for this genial gent, so keep your eyes peeled on our forthcoming posts for his next release/releases.

Now, while in Paris, we couldn’t escape with mentioning two guys that really made a difference to our trip, first the lovely Leomeo who was a guide supreme, showing us his city in a way that we could never have imagined, leaving us unforgettably in love with Paris and in deepest gratitude to our Leo Leo for his generous hospitality & fulsome friendship. Now, hardly a music post of ours goes by without giving him a mention and given just how intrinsic he was in our Parisian Pleasure of a stay, we had to pop something in, so a reminder of his fabulous collaborative track “Nirvana Dream” was due, nit least as news on a full release is imminent, so worthy of another mention and definitely a worthy addition to you collection by going to http://soundcloud.com/djleomeo/leomeo-javier-medina-presents.

Our other Parisian Pleasure, in the music sense of course, was Ben Manson, this terrific talent blowing our mind with a spectacular set at new bar/club kid on the Paris block, Spyce.  In fact we were so impressed, had we known he was playing the 7 a.m. slot at La Demence the following day, we would have made plans to check out of our hotel late and postpone our onward trip to Antwerp, so as to savour a second showing by him, which we were told was just as superb. However, whilst missing out on the latter performance of his, Ben has releived our disappointment on missing out on his Brussels beats, by completing a new mix, titled “From La Demence To Revolver With Love”, Revolver being his third gig in as many days in that weekend and completing a similar triangle of trips to ours, Paris to Brussels to London, making this a must mix in our collection and one for you too, by going to http://benmanson.podomatic.com/.

So, leaving Paris behind and jumping right into some Belgian Brilliance, we also jump from La Demence up to Antwerp and to a D.J. talent that hit us squarely between the eyes with his euphoric & prolific performance at Red & Blue during our mini tour, so just had to get our special focus here. Elof De Neve is, without doubt, an extremely talented D.J. yet clearly one that has been overlooked by the mainstream, missed out by the big club brands and fallen out of the mind’s eye of others, who like us, have been witness to some superb sets of his. That said, through his long standing residency with Antwerp’s finest, Red & Blue, Elof touches the worlds of Matinee, SuperMartXe, Salvation & Lovechild, not just through the special parties these brands hold in the diamond city, but he also gets the chance to play on behalf of them around Europe every now & then (although not often enough in our estimation). Such is his talent & experience, we could spend pages going into detail about the man & his music, but for the purposes of this particular focus, want to concentrate the mind on just what an asset he is to Red & Blue and what he could be to all these major brands.

His set at the “I Wanna F***” event in Red & Blue was one we were so lucky to be part of and was symptomatic of the scintillation & superlatives that flow out of his music selections, lifting any party and any emotional set from flat as a pancake to bouncy as a beachball, dismal to dynamic, monotonous to majestic, his euro-style, vocal drenched & belting beats injecting vitally & vroom rather than doom & gloom. Our review on this Red & Blue outing kind of speaks volumes for Elof’s performance that night, the very rare purple patches that happen in our clubbing experiences, occurring that night, due very much to his spectacular showing. However, as lucky as we were to witness two superb sets, our Christmas trip to Antwerp another example of the De Neve delight, as not everyone gets the chance, there is always his studio compilations to turn to, Elof having a “Finest Selection” series to choose from, Volume 18 getting our attention here and one pretty close to that prolific performance a couple of Saturday’s ago. Mind you with plenty more to choose from, all filled with progressive, vocal tinged & euro-style beats, you can’t go wrong with any of them, seven of his best out at http://soundcloud.com/elofdeneve while more on this man can be found by going to http://www.elofdeneve.com/ and you can even check him out on YouTube at http://youtube.com/elofdeneve.

However, back to that set and we said of him & his performance in our review “…the terrific talent Elof treating us to a storming selection of scintillating sounds, barnstorming beats & vocal infused euphoria that would put many a Matinee D.J. to shame…” adding that “…In Elof De Neve, the Red & Blue team have a terrific talent of a resident D.J. and his performance on this occasion once again impressed immensely…”. Yet, it comes as no surprise to us, that restricting his services to Red & Blue is not in the De Neve rule book, as these next few weeks alone see him spreading his wings form Matinee in Amsterdam, European Gay Ski Week in the French Alpes & the Delice Dream Festival in Barcelona. Plus, we are pleased as punch he will be in London next month for Lovechild, as well as flying the Red & Blue flag at home when Beyond calls in two weeks, all meaning that the world of Elof De Neve couldn’t be better right now.

Staying with Antwerp and another moment of gratitude, as one other person really made the difference to a return visit that had so much expectation in the planning, but little in the way of result, Ruben Winters making that difference. Whilst Paris was always going to be a hard act to follow, Ruben’s last minute absence from Red & Blue not helping either, a day of Belgian Brilliance was to behold us and the chance to get to know Ruben a little better than we already did, his evident passion for D.J.’ing, for music and particularly entertaining his audience, coming through loud & clear in our conversations. As in his sets at Red & Blue, his passion for that journey taking is also neatly diaplayed in the podcasts he produces, a selection of which are available at http://soundcloud.com/d-jayme while there is exciting news on the horizon for this talented rising star, as a new club project in Rotterdam looks set to shine the spotlight on him and elevate his standing in the D.J community. So, we want to be the first to wish him all the best with that & to thank him for his superb hospitality during our stay.

Now, no Belgian Brilliance special post would be complete without mentioning Brussels born Steven Redant, who whilst now firmly based in Barcelona, always sees the Belgian capital as a bit of a homecoming whenever he visits, La Demence the primary reason for his return these days. So, we kind of caught him by surprise when we turned up in his old backyard, but by golly were we glad we did, as his set was something truly breathtaking to behold. Plus, his reception for us was amazing and we were truly honoured to be standing up by the D.J. booth for the whole of his prolific performance, soaking up the splendour of La Demence’s main room in his hands. So, we couldn’t think of a better way of finishing than on a Redant high and by sharing with you the compilation he created following that spectacular showing two Friday’s ago, we needing to say nothing else apart from, go straight to http://stevenredant.podomatic.com/, go grab his Feb 4^th La Demence offering and GET IT ON!, as it is the majestic Mr Redant at his brilliant best.

So, that’s it, our look at what made our mini Euro tour so good, the music from all our entrants in this Parisian Pleasure To Belgian Brilliance very worthy of their inclusion, as are the links to their tracks & compilations which we hope you enjoy. But moreover, what they all prove to us, as do so many D.J.’s each & every day, is that “…Music Is The Answer…”. (DISCO MATT)