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Dmitri From Paris Mixes (Rockerz Faves)

Eight remixes from a French DJ who has spent thirty years proving that the most radical thing you can do to a disco record is treat it with total respect.

Dimitri From Paris

Dimitri Yerasimos was born in Istanbul to Greek parents and raised in Paris, where he became a radio DJ before establishing himself as one of the most respected editors in dance music.

His approach is specific and unusual. Where most remixers impose a new rhythm, Dimitri works like a restorer: he goes back to the original multitrack tapes where he can get them, extends the arrangement, brings up parts that were buried, and lets the record be more itself. His edits are frequently longer, warmer and more detailed than the originals, without ever sounding like a different song.

That method has made him the go-to figure for reissue campaigns of the great disco catalogues, particularly the Chic Organization and Philadelphia International.

What to listen for

The CHIC material is the heart of it. "I Want Your Love," "Le Freak" and "My Forbidden Lover" are all built from the original tapes, and the difference is audible — you can hear Bernard Edwards' bass and Nile Rodgers' guitar separated in a way the 1979 masters never allowed.

Sister Sledge's "He's the Greatest Dancer" and "Thinking of You" come from the same Chic Organization sessions — Rodgers and Edwards wrote and produced them — and the extended versions are genuinely revelatory.

The Philadelphia edits are the other half. "The Love I Lost" in the Super Disco Blend takes the Harold Melvin record that arguably invented disco's rhythm and extends it to its logical length, and "Don't Leave Me This Way" does the same.

Sheila B. Devotion's "Your Love Is Good" in the instrumental is the deep cut — another Chic production, for a French artist, which closes the circle nicely.

Go deeper

His Le Edits series and the Chic Organization reissue box sets are where the work lives.

Nile Rodgers' memoir Le Freak is one of the best music books of recent years and explains what made the Chic Organization method so unusual — they wrote, produced and played everything themselves and treated each act as a separate creative brief.

For the wider re-edit tradition: Tom Moulton invented it, Larry Levan and François Kevorkian refined it, and Theo Parrish and Joey Negro are the other contemporary masters.

Listening note: Dimitri's edits work by patience — a break held four bars longer than expected, a vocal withheld until the room has given up waiting. It is dance music made by someone who understands that anticipation is the pleasure and the drop is merely the receipt.

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