Lil’ Louis – “French Kiss”

Hashmoder — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:20:27 +0000

Important note:
All the French Kiss versions below are the first and original mixes and remixes circa 1989.
It is amazing how French Kiss stood the test of time. Exactly 21 years ago, around October/November, or let’s just say Fall of 1989, Lil’ Louis came out with this gem. To my ears, French Kiss was really the first serious progressive/house track (through its rolling, hypnotic bassline) to come out at that time, thus making most other house tracks in the dance and mainstream charts to sound like kindergarten music. French Kiss took the world by storm with its no-nonsense attitude. Its incredible breakdown in the middle, as the track slowed down gradually to a complete pause (accompanied by a sustained high-note and a female’s erotic moans, groans and heavy breathing) …. with few seconds of no beats …. and then the beat started to pulse at the lowest BPM, increasing its speed slowly and gradually back to the track’s original fast-paced tempo. All of that was ground-breaking musically and technologically (as it was really a-first-of-its-kind to be programmed/midi-sequenced at that time when it was hard to do so with midi gear).

For those of you interested, the sound of that bassline was a preset called “Solid Bass” from a Yamaha DX-100 synth (pictured above).
If you use Native Instruments FM8 software synth, then you can download and unzip the following sys-ex patches of the Yamaha DX-100/27/21. These synths had identical engines, although each one was different in size. However, they also shared the same exact factory patch/program presets.
Download a-z.zip —–and—– DX21.zip
Upload the patches to FM8.
Look for “Solid Bass” or “Solid Bass 2” patches for that French Kiss bassline sound.

When I first heard the track at Medusa’s club in Chicago, I stopped doing what I was doing ….. stood still in the middle of the dancefloor where the sweetspot was in the stereo-field …… and just listened. The DJ played the entire 10-minute track. The only words that came out of my mouth were, “HOLY SHIT!” I said those words three time …. once in the beginning of the track, once in middle/breakdown and then once three-quarters towards the end.

Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Original Mix)…

Artist: Lil’ Louis
Title: French Kiss (Original Mix)
Year: 1989
Label: FFRR (Full Frequency Range Recording)

Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Original Mix) (mp3)

Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Hitting Virgin Territory Instrumental Mix)…

Artist: Lil’ Louis
Title: French Kiss (Hitting Virgin Territory Instrumental Mix)
Year: 1989
Label: FFRR (Full Frequency Range Recording)

Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Hitting Virgin Territory Instrumental Mix) (mp3)

Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Innocent Until Proven Guilty Vocal Remix)…

Artist: Lil’ Louis
Title: French Kiss (Innocent Until Proven Guilty Vocal Remix)
Year: 1989
Label: FFRR (Full Frequency Range Recording)

Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Innocent Until Proven Guilty Vocal Remix) (mp3)