Filter House

Filter house emerged in France in the mid‑1990s as local producers fused Chicago house’s drum language with disco and funk sampling. Early touchstones included Motorbass (Philippe Zdar and Étienne de Crécy) and Daft Punk’s breakout singles “Da Funk” and “Around the World,” which showcased sweeping filter automation and pumping compression. Boutique Parisian labels—Roulé (Thomas Bangalter), Crydamoure (Le Knight Club), and others—defined the scene’s aesthetic and vinyl-first culture.

The style reached global prominence with Daft Punk’s album “Homework” (1997) and the runaway success of Stardust’s “Music Sounds Better With You” (1998). Cassius’ “1999,” Modjo’s “Lady (Hear Me Tonight)” (2000), The Supermen Lovers’ “Starlight” (2001), and Alan Braxe’s productions cemented the sound: disco loops, sweeping filters, and radio‑friendly hooks built for dance floors and pop charts alike.

In the 2000s, filter house’s techniques spread into mainstream dance‑pop and helped shape bloghouse and early electro house. While tastes shifted toward harder electro sonics mid‑decade, the core vocabulary—sampled disco loops, filter automation, sidechain “pump”—remained influential. The 2010s nu‑disco revival and broader house resurgence re‑embraced the style’s warmth and musicality, and its fingerprints are heard today across pop, electropop, and modern house productions.