Alain and Stephane Queme, or Alan Braxe and DJ Falcon, are indisputable architects of the French Touch - the emotive house music conjured from looped samples with an inimitable Gallic flare that emerged from Paris in the mid 90s. In 2022 these two originals will present their first ever collaboration as Braxe & Falcon in the form of the Step By Step EP, released on Smugglers Way. The release represents a sublime distillation of their shared musical essence, a revelatory realization and a compelling expansion only conceivable for them at this point in time. It opens with "Step By Step," an ecstatic vocal drone with a pleading chord progression of syrupy synthesizer, as if Braxe's "In Love With You" had been baking on the dashboard for a quarter of a century. The production alone is hypnotic, with the addition of a vocal from noted French touch fan Panda Bear the track transcends anything in the catalogues of all three artists to something completely majestic, resplendent in its glowing, lush simplicity.
