The weekly dose of beats from Les Beaux Dimanches…

I had zero intention of writing a "tribute" — I just wanted to grab the keyboard and say: "That was one hell of a Sunday…" It got away from me! Lol.

So here's what came out of it…

The old-school heads have known them for almost as long as they've been alive.

Some have lived through the weddings, the births, the big rooms, the Visions, the New Year's Eves, the Daomé, the Velvet or the Stereo nights, on through even more kids, projects, breakups, time passing… to which we now add the losses, near or far…

And we live all of that with the scene, with the people we knew on the dancefloors of days gone by… and that's you and us, right there! We grow old with it. And we grow old with each of them too, because after all these years, they've become like friends. Hep! That's what long friendships do. ;)

They are MONITORS: two old timers, two guys who found each other in their youth and have stayed united by music ever since, through all of life's twists and turns… you know, that strange, conscious, ever-evolving experience over time…

The maturation of time

You know better than anyone, things are never fixed or unchanging. That B2B dynamic, which had built their eternal reputation by tearing through countless nights and leaving indelible memories in everyone who became a regular, had to take a pause. If you were there, you'll remember that back in the 2010s and 2020s, they played like two guys who devoured it all, and DAMN were we loyal! But hep… Life! Family, kids, the years…

Thank God, after a few years away from the decks to handle life's obligations, they were finally able to reunite. And I'll tell you, I still remember their first reunion gig… Damn, my girl Marie and I were there!

So yeah… we noticed it: "They don't play like they used to!" But who stays stuck in their own mold without evolving, except those who've stopped dreaming?

Time brings talent back and refines passion. It reveals every flavor of it.

Today, their dynamic is different from what it was 20 years ago, but I'm still blown away by the quality of their playing, their selection, their technique, and especially their sensitivity to the floor.

The guys from MONITORS, Bruno and Erik, are two immense talents from another era, with different, complementary strengths, each with his own full, distinctive color, his loves and his sorrows, bringing out the best in the other to create a whole that doesn't exist without it.

For me, personally, their fixed-alternation formula at Les Beaux Dimanches is exquisite. It lets you taste each one's passion for tearing up a room… from the BOTTOM!

Every time they're on THEIR home turf, you can hear it… and you can FEEL it in your body.

Whew!! My Gaad!

But hey, I'll admit it, I'm a filthy beat slut, and when I'm served brainy genius paired with a merciless bassline, I sink into the rhythm and never come back out. And MONITORS shows no mercy when they're on fire.

A reflection on commitment

I'm not speaking on their behalf, or for them, and I'm not saying this is their story, but still…

When I think about it, somewhere in there, for a musical, creative, or romantic duo to work and to last, each person has to decide that the whole POINT of choosing each other in the first place is that together, they'll do better than either one alone. And when the other person makes choices, you accept them, you support them, and you move forward.

Maybe it means sometimes giving up a bit of your own space and showing a little less of yourself… to gain a little more of "us." Which results in a multiplication of the effect, far beyond their simple addition…

From the depths of the dancefloor, and across all these years… damn, personally, I say THANK YOU to them for close to 25 years of DJing, and for still managing, even today, to come together every once in a while and make us lose all dignity…