Released in 2000, Alan Braxe and Fred Falke's "Intro" is five minutes of faultlessly melancholy, perfectly elegant, dance music that nudged French House into the future.
The duo's combination of production mastery and classical musicianship helps to explain why "Intro" didn't really sound like anything else. The drums fizz with excitement and the slightest touch of record-surface grot; the bass line is magnificently elastic; and the sample of The Jets' "Crush On You" is thrillingly bittersweet, a dance-floor lightning flash. "It's sincere, it's honest and it's authentic," Braxe explains.
"Intro" is a record of pure inspiration, that was done and dusted in a working day. "I woke up one morning; I found that sample from The Jets; I sampled it into the E-mu SP-1200; added drums and I went straight to Fred's place and Fred started to play the bass," Braxe explains. Et voilà: "Intro" was done and the track would soon be edging its way into the British Top 40 and destroying clubs from Bournemouth to Brazil.
"These days there is a lot of fantasy about how songs are made," Falke adds. "But this was done very simply. There was no computer! It was a very straightforward approach."
You can't keep a song as iconic as "Intro" down. Braxe and Falke have returned to their debut single with a 25th anniversary re-release. Featuring the 2023 remaster, the re-issue includes new remixes from both Braxe and Falke.
Given that "Intro" was pretty much perfect the first time around, the results are astoundingly strong. Falke's remix takes "Intro" into new dimensions, cosmic and suspiciously dubby, a newly-recorded bass line sending the mix on its psychedelic way.
Braxe's remix is raw and dirty, a "hotel room edit" as he calls it, that nods to the history of French House as it sparkles up the spine. Both tunes are evidence that - actually - you can remix the un-remixable, so long as it is done with infinite love and incredible skill.
Falke says he felt no pressure in remixing such an iconic track. "Intro is 25 years old," he says. "The original road, from the song's starting point to the finishing line, is long gone for me."
"One approach would be, 'It's perfect as it is. We won't touch it.'" Braxe adds. "The other approach is, 'OK let's do it like the old way.' We did two new versions and we were very simple about it, instead of thinking too much."