Review
Genre and Mood
Cassius open their third album with Toop Toop, a track that refuses to choose between electro, indie rock and dance music. It is energetic and playful, with a gritty edge: Wikipedia files it under indie rock and dance rock, and the critic Ben Cardew called it a weirdly alluring rock, reggae and house fusion.
Song Summary
Three things make the song, and the sources agree on them: a Clash-style guitar riff, a dance beat and a vocal distorted as if sung through a megaphone. MusicBrainz credits the guitar to -M-, the French singer Matthieu Chedid, who also shares the writing credit with the duo; Philippe Zdar sings lead, Boombass plays bass and Cassius produce. On the album it lasts 2:47, the radio edit 2:54. The song arrives, repeats its hook with conviction and leaves.
Musical Breakdown
No source maps the song section by section, so this guide follows its described elements only.
Intro
The sources describe no separate intro; the album version goes straight to its riff and beat.
Main Section
The guitar riff and the dance beat carry the song together, with Zdar’s distorted voice on top.
Outro
At under three minutes, the song ends with energy to spare.
Concepts in Focus
A riff is a short, repeated instrumental phrase that a song is built around. Toop Toop’s riff could be lifted out whole: in 2008 Madonna used it in her performance of Into the Groove on the Sticky & Sweet Tour.
distortion is usually discussed for guitars, but here it is applied to the voice. Sung as if through a megaphone, Zdar’s vocal trades warmth for a tinny, shouted urgency.
The song also has a remarkable remix history. The single carried versions by Mr Oizo, Martin Eyerer and Oliver Koletzki; hear Koletzki’s own music in Oliver Koletzki – Through the Darkness. While rehearsing the 15 Again tour, Cassius also released the a cappella so that fans could remix it, and the resulting Cassius Workshop project drew, by the band’s count, more than 400 remixes.
Artistic Context
Cassius were Philippe Cerboneschi (Zdar) and Hubert Blanc-Francard (Boombass), who met in 1988 working on albums for MC Solaar, recorded as La Funk Mob and took the name Cassius in 1996, becoming part of the French touch. 15 Again, their third album, was recorded in three weeks in Ibiza and released on 11 September 2006 by EMI and Virgin, with guests including Pharrell Williams, Sébastien Tellier and -M-. Toop Toop came out first, as the lead single, in July 2006. Chedid later led his own project, heard in Lamomali – L’Âme Au Mali.
Impact and Reception
The single reached number nine on the UK dance chart, 35 in Italy and 39 in France, appeared on David Guetta’s Fuck Me I’m Famous Ibiza Mix 06 and in the soundtrack of Paolo Sorrentino’s film Il Divo. Zdar died in Paris on 19 June 2019; a year later Cat Power and -M- recorded Toop Toop as a tribute to him. It is here as proof that a dance track can be short and blunt and still last. Play it first, as Cassius did.
