Ivan Smagghe

The global profile of Parisian DJ, radio host, and producer Ivan Smagghe has been swelling since he and Black Strobe partner Arnaud Rebotini released "Paris Acid City" on Source in 1997. Black Strobe have actually gained more fame for their remix work -- for Playgroup, Röyksopp, Gina X Performance, the Rapture, Dave Clarke, and several others -- than for their scattered productions. Additionally, prior to doing the honors for the first edition of React's Suck My Deck mix series (for Bugged Out!), Smagghe on his own had released a pair of well-received mixes: 2003's How to Kill the DJ and Death Disco, released earlier in 2004. Suck My Deck is more straightforward than Smagghe's previous mixes, an up-to-date set that blitzes through straight-up techno and new wave-influenced house. Though the program is rather streamlined, involving hardly anything that can be regarded as a tangent, it's hardly lacking in distinctive highlights, such as Chelonis R. Jones' "The Rush (Sex With the Machines)," DJ T.'s remix of Random Factor's "After the Tone," the Roman Flügel remix of Cosmo Vitelli's "Icons," and DK8's "Murder Was the Bass" (which seems to have nicked the tear-jerking keyboard melody off Octave One's early Detroit classic "I Believe"). Smagghe is a no-frills DJ, allowing each track to play out a few minutes before transitioning smoothly into the next. Suck My Deck doesn't have the range of his past mixes, but it's pleasurable just the same. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide