Review
Genre and Mood
Etienne de Crécy made Smile with Alex Gopher as a groove, and the Vocal Mix hands it to the American rapper Asher Roth. It is French house leaning on funk, carefree and groovy: the Arts Desk heard a low funk groove, Ibiza Spotlight a fresh, breezy, smooth track built on one of de Crécy’s funky basslines.
Song Summary
The original Smile, four and a half minutes long, is the fifth track of Super Discount 3, the album de Crécy released in January 2015. That summer Ultra Records issued Smile (Vocal Mix) in the US, with Roth’s vocal on top and an extended version beside it; this is the vocal mix itself, about three and a half minutes. De Crécy told the story of the guest: he discovered Roth through the video for Tangerine Girl, felt his laid-back funk suited the track, and Roth recorded his part in a matter of hours at Gopher’s studio.
Musical Breakdown
The Groove
The reviews of the original describe its foundation: a low funk groove and a funky bassline, smooth and breezy. No source maps its sections, so listen for how the bass carries everything else.
The Vocal
Over that groove, the Vocal Mix adds Roth’s voice. No review describes his part in detail beyond the laid-back funk de Crécy heard in him; listen for how a voice changes the groove of the album track.
Concepts in Focus
An alternate version is a second finished recording of a song by the same artist. Smile has several: the album track, this Vocal Mix and its extended version, then six remixes by Don Dada, Moonbootica, Clyde P, Round, Mijo and Malikk. Comparing the album track with this one shows what a voice adds to the same groove.
A <a href=“https://korczis.github.io/sonic-playground/concept/featured-artist/” class=“concept-link font-medium text-primary-700 underline decoration-dotted underline-offset-4 hover:decoration-solid dark:text-primary-400” data-concept=“featured-artist” title=“A guest performer credited on another artist’s track, usually as “feat.”: a rapper’s verse, a singer’s hook or a second voice. Features bring together different styles and audiences and are central to hip-hop, R&B and dance music.“>featured artist is a guest credited on another artist’s track. Super Discount 3 was the first de Crécy album with singers, and this version adds one more: Roth, an American hip-hop artist whose first single as lead artist, I Love College, came out in 2009.
A bassline is the low line that carries a groove, and in Smile Ibiza Spotlight heard one of de Crécy’s funky basslines.
Artistic Context
De Crécy, born in Lyon in 1969, went to the same college in Versailles as Alex Gopher and the duo Air, and co-founded the label Solid with Gopher. As a sound engineer in Paris he met Philippe Zdar, heard here with Cassius in Cassius – Toop Toop, and they recorded as Motorbass. Super Discount 3, the third album of his Super Discount series, combined the samples of the first with the synthesizers of the second, with songs built to play in his DJ sets.
Impact and Reception
Ibiza Spotlight called Smile the standout of Super Discount 3. The Vocal Mix got its own video, directed by de Crécy in Atwater Village, Los Angeles: a morning commute down Glendale Boulevard from behind the wheel, opening on a radio introduction by KCRW’s Jason Bentley, with Roth appearing in it. Put it on for a drive.
