Rinocerose

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• Genre: House
• Hometown: Montpellier
• Rinocerose Website

About

Psychologists by day and house-with-guitars unit by night, former indie rockers Jean-Philippe Freu and Patou Carrie form the heart of Rinocerose. Created in 1995 in Montpellier, France, the pair first appeared on the Spanish label Elefant, with the help of programmer Johnny Palumbo. They assembled a seven-piece collective to perform live, treating audiences to a house sound that was different from the music being made by other French electronica acts. Instead of the breezy ambience of Air, or the eclectic fusions of Daft Punk, Rinocerose interpreted disco-derived house with guitars and inflected downtempo tracks with dub. The group’s full-length debut, the polished Installation Sonore, appeared on V2 in 1999, with Music Kills Me following up in 2002.

- Melissa Piazza