Para One

Historically, French electronic music’s pendulum has swung between hip-hop and techno, and Para One’s career has encompassed the full range of its sweep. Born in Orleans in 1979, Jean-Baptiste de Laubier grew up enamored of ’80s rap groups, and by the ’90s, he had begun producing. Around the turn of the millennium, he joined Parisian hip-hop group TTC, coproducing their 2002 debut, Ceci N'est Pas Un Disque; he simultaneously began putting out rambunctious left-field instrumentals under his solo alias, pushing from boisterous boom bap into squelchy electro-funk. On 2006’s Epiphanie and 2012’s Passion, he hit upon an idiosyncratic strain of electro-pop enlivened by funk, disco, and playful guest vocals; 2014’s Club explored deeper strains of house and garage. With 2021’s SPECTRE: Machines of Loving Grace, Para One pivoted toward cinematic downtempo and ambient; the same year, he made his directorial debut with feature film SPECTRE: Sanity, Madness & the Family. His atmospheric, experimental soundtrack to that film marked a new frontier in his work, definitively leaving the club behind in search of pure, untamed psychedelia.