9. HOLY GHOST! ‘I Will Come Back’ (2009)

All in all, I did like about 50 remixes. Included here are those I think resisted the test of time the better.

Then there’s those I’d rather forget: the uninspired (Crookers and Kid Cudi). The badly mixed (Buraka Sound System). Turned down by the A&R (Lily Allen). Turned down by the artist herself (Joss Stone). Those I couldn’t finish (Sorry, Steve Aoki). Those I regret not doing (Amy Winehouse, which kind of haunts me in my sleep).

A-Trak and Sebastian helped me a lot on this Holy Ghost one. I finished it in a Brussels hotel room at 7 AM after playing the Dirty Dancing party in May 2009. I felt very honoured to have a record on DFA because it’s one of my favourite labels. LCD Soundsystem (and Holy Ghost) are also of my preferred remixers.

8. NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB ‘Ice Cream’ (2006)

I almost called this compilation BEDROOM FUN.

Because to me, remixing is really like bedroom producing. Sometimes airport producing. Even cab ride producing. I don’t book a big studio, I don’t hire a sound engineer, it’s almost straight from my own speakers to yours. I love this idea of preparing something in your bedroom that spreads world-wide in a minute. Like HOMEWORK. Or ENDTRODUCING. Or THE GREY ALBUM. I’ve been inspired a lot by those records, and come to think of it, it’s an ironic tour-de-force that they became such household names.

7. DAVID RUBATO ‘Circuit’  (’The Party’ Mix ) (2008)

Which brings me to this: Have you noticed that I mixed this compilation? Mixing records together is something I love to do, and I’m (almost) always having the time of my life when I play in a club with a good sound-system. By the way, what happened to scratching? I used to be a good scratcher. Matter fact, scratching is the reason why I’ve been called “DJ” Mehdi. For some reason there’s absolutely no scratches on this record, and that’s not right. (But it’s OK)

I’ve never met David Rubato in flesh. This is particular to remixing: you ‘work with’ an artist you’ve often never met.

6. STAYGOLD  ‘Justify’ (2009)

I called this compilation ‘Red Black and Blue’ because, being in this remix business since about 1995, I went through a lot of changes. The equipment. The industry. The competition. The state-of-mind. I know it’s going to sound corny to say I feel like I had a ‘Red’ period (before 2001), a ‘Black’ (2001-2006), and a ‘Blue’ one (2006-now) but it is how I feel. Another corny thing I learned to live with is being called DJ ‘my name’. I thought about changing it many times but it’s kinda too late now. Plus, it is what it is, I am a DJ first.

5. ETIENNE DE CRECY ‘Out of my hands’ (2002)

Another bridge between Hip-hop and House, Etienne de Crécy (along with Zdar) used to be the most in-demand sound engineer of the french 90’s rap scene. I remember the first time we worked together in 1994; he asked for a Technics SL 1200 turntable as payment for the session. I was working on this movie soundtrack and was fighting a lot with the producers, old-school-industry-freaking-rules style. I was only 17 and Etienne was the only grown-up actually paying attention to how I wanted the music to sound. We became good friends and I went on to work with him on both his Tempovision and Superdiscount projects. He’s also a superb reggae dancer.