Ivan Smagghe’s name has become synonymous with innovative & intense electronic records which have earned him the adoration of contemporaries such as Andy Weatherhall, Tiga, Ewan Pearson & Tiefschwarz to name but a few. Not only that but Ivan is renowned for being one of the most original and inspired DJs of the moment with a unique talent for constantly discovering sounds that no-one has heard or dared use before to such great effect.
From his earnest beginnings working for the now defunct Rough Trade shop in
Paris, Ivan's DJ career spans more than 10 years. His highly respected radio show 'TEST' ran on Radio Nova (the premier radio station in Paris) for two years, spawning the 4 exceptional 'TEST' compilations as well as earning him a reputation as one of the most respected DJs in France. Up until 2004 he also DJed alongside 'the French John Peel' Bernard Lenoir on France Inter radio.
In 1997 Smagghe and Arnaud Rebotini (a colleague at Rough Trade) created Black Strobe - 'Innerstrings' was the result which they released on their label 'Black in Black'. It was heard by Trevor Jackson who promptly signed it to his Output label. It garnered heavyweight support from Weatherall, Laurent Garnier and DJ Hell and predated the neo-electro scene from which the duo would find a like-minded band of friends like James Murphy of The DFA, Berlin-based producer Ewan Pearson and Canadian dandy Tiga.
In 2002 Black Strobe released a double a-side: 'Me and Madonna', which featured Parisian DJ Jennifer on vocals and Rebotini lowering his bass to his thigh like Peter Hook, and 'Fitting Together', a sinister electro-beast revealing their fascination with bleep-house.Their next single, 'Chemical Sweet Girl', was to prove quintessential Black Strobe, and crystallized the duo’s sound: Arnaud’s Gothic intonations rode shotgun over Smagghe’s rough-clad atonal freak-bleeps, creating a frisson of dark EBM funk goodness. ‘The Abwehr Disco’, meanwhile was a trip to the centre of the labyrinth, a groove impossible to escape from as a bassline of minotaur proportions busts through the walls. This was followed by the phenomenal ‘Deceive Play’ in 2005, backed with the eviscerating trance funk of ‘Nazi Trance Fuck Off’ - a play on their beloved Dead Kennedy’s ‘Nazi Punks Fuck Off’, and suitably permeated with the spirit of the hardcore punk that inspired it.
Their last 12”, 2006’s ‘Last Dub on Earth’ saw Black Strobe strike out in a deep twisted direction, refashioning their ‘Last Club on Earth’ cut into an entirely new, mechanistic chrome-plated house shapes that signals a new phuturistic direction for the dark lords of sinister boogie.
After that came a collection of their zeitgeist-defining remixes; an amazing set of productions and re-interpretations from a diverse coterie of artists from all shades of the musical spectrum: Bloc Party, Depeche Mode, The Rapture and Alter Ego are just some of the artists to receive the Strobe treatment. Their most recent remix is of all time EBM heroes Nitzer Ebb, which sees the machine groove innovators pass the baton onto their progressive progeny.
Smagghe sums their recordings up as "rock'n'roll with synths" which is apt as their incendiary live shows are hedonistic midnight-black carnivals wreathed in narcotic lights, sweat and Gothic funk: rock channeled through twisted cybernetic circuits.
June 2007 sees the release of their long awaited debut album “Burn Your Own Church” which incorporates all of the usual Black Strobe elements yet also reveals hitherto unseen sides the Strobe have never revealed before.
Ivan’s longest running Parisian residency is at the legendary lesbian PULP club in Paris (which sadly closed down in March 2007) and as for the rest of the world; he has amassed residencies at Fabric (London), Kill The DJ (Worldwide), Bugged Out! (Various – UK/Worldwide), Robert Johnson (Frankfurt), Mondo (Madrid), Space (Ibiza) and plays regularly all over Europe, Japan, South America and Australia.
