London based since 1998, French native Nicolas Laugier’s story is one of determination, drive and ambition. Hailing from a humble working-class background and after many years of hardship, Nicolas gambled all his little savings on a professional music career nine years ago at the age of 36, with no plan B. No easy feat to achieve these days especially being strictly a DJ / remixer.
As a DJ, The Reflex sets are a proper energy-packed workout, full of unreleased material (his own and from his trusted network), often playing the big disco tunes well ahead of everyone else. With 20+ years in the game, through an impressive mix of disco, cosmic, funk, boogie house, and rarities, The Reflex brings on the grooves in their many forms with an ability to adapt to crowds and places through his wealth of knowledge and experience.
We caught up with The Reflex to talk about his current musical projects.
Electronic Groove: Hi, Nicolas, we hope you are doing well and staying safe. Can you please tell us a bit about your thoughts on the current situation with the COVID-19 virus?
The Reflex: Hi, guys, thanks for your interest. The current pandemic is a tragedy… It has shown (and widened) the gap between the wealthy and the poor, where basically if you have the means to get through it then fine, but if you don’t then you’re f***ed. It just showed how reliant on each other we are and the flaws in our society.
EG: From artist, to event organizers, cleaning staff and the list goes on and on, the music industry has taken a hard hit. Do you think any good will come out of this?
The Reflex: I’m usually quite optimistic… I’m not sure how things are gonna pan out in my industry, with changes to travel and restrictions, on top of re-scheduled (and canceled) gigs. It might not be feasible to accommodate all previously scheduled gigs. Maybe countries will have to rely more on local talent rather than flying people from all over, who knows… Personally, my wife has lost her job, both of us aren’t eligible for government help schemes, many remix projects have been canceled or put on hold and of course, all gigs are out of the window.
EG: We might have asked this first but for those who don’t know, what is The Reflex Revision?
The Reflex: ‘The Reflex Revision’ is a remix done strictly (or mostly) from multi-tracks. I like the challenge of taking, let’s say, a 24 track recording from the late 70’s and reprocess it into a brand new version that works on today’s dance floors using the exact same sounds. It’s often a huge audio editing job as well as arranging and mixing one but I thoroughly enjoy that way of doing it, rather than just sticking a bunch of house drums under a track, there’s not much creativity in that I feel and that’s something that anyone can do.
EG: Moving to The Reflex Revision of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds cut titled ‘Blue Moon Rising’. How did this work come together?
The Reflex: I’m a regular remixer for Noel, the other day I actually put all the remixes I did for him on a CD, ten of them now (seven of them got released in the last four years I think).
“I like the challenge of taking, let’s say, a 24 track recording from the late 70’s and reprocess it into a brand new version that works on today’s dance floors using the exact same sounds”
EG: What is your approach and technical process when decide to edit a track?
The Reflex: Like most modern recordings it’s often a big session, over 100 tracks or more to deal with, usually it’s about three weeks job, sometimes more, depending on the deadline. The trick is to make it a version that I would like to DJ with while respecting the song structure. I usually get the groove down quite quickly but the hardest really is to incorporate/rebuild the tons of elements in a tight ensemble… You have to be patient!
EG: From you Revision catalog, what are some of your favorite (or most fun to do) works and why?
The Reflex: The recent ones it would be:
Nina Simone ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free’
Idris Muhammad ‘Could Heaven Ever Be Like This’
Janet Jackson ‘When I Think Of You’ (in Mastertapes Ep 4)
In the older ones, probably these:
Curtis Mayfield ‘Pusherman’
Earth, Wind & Fire ‘Happy Feelin’
Marvin Gaye ‘Got To Give It Up’
EG: Do you work on different edits at the same time or you prefer to finish one to proceed to another? Can you share a sneak peek of your upcoming editions?
The Reflex: I have about 40/50 projects going on at once. I do prioritize the commissioned ones obviously but I like to have options so if I feel stuck I can always move on to something else. I often find this is the way it works best for me, doing a bit of this one, then a bit that of that one. For a sneak peek, Mastertapes Episode 7 is your best bet!
EG: You recently released The Reflex Mastertapes 7 aired on Rinse FM. What was the inspiration to mix your most recent session? How long did it to create the session?
The Reflex: With the Mastertapes mixes, I wanted to create an outlet to showcase my works in progress as well as other remixes I’ve done. A lot of the time, these revisions are time-consuming, it’s a hell of a job to get them to the finish line to a standard than I’m happy with, so the Mastertapes allow me, if you will, to test some of these unfinished remixes and check out the feedback, etc… Some eventually will get completed but others won’t, I’m only human after all! I find it also exciting to put together an hour of unheard stuff, usually, I mix it live in one take on my CDJs and that’s the mix, with all its imperfections or not.
“Like most modern recordings it’s often a big session, over 100 tracks or more to deal with”
EG: Electronic music aside… What are your biggest references? What did you grow up listening to at home?
The Reflex: From 6-7 years old The Beatles became a huge part of my upbringing, helping to develop my appreciation of the English language as well as opening up doors to Motown and soul music (through their covers of The Shirelles and The Miracles for example), and therefore building my knowledge of classic pop along the way. But more than that, as resources in my family were modest, a love of sound through my dad’s turntable is really what shaped my ears, regardless of the records we had.
EG: Finally, any upcoming revisions or endeavors that we should be looking forward to in the near future?
The Reflex: Yes, right now I have these two official Salsoul revisions out through BMG and I’m working on two more before they get bundled together on a 4-track EP. I’m also working on a remix for Roisin Murphy, as well as a classic early 90’s house tune that should be out soon! I just finished a Roxy Music revision, waiting to hear what’s happening with that. Plus several others including Acid Arab, Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Luxxury... I’m firing on all cylinders.
Check The Reflex’s latest releases here.
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