C2C (group)
C2C is a French musical group formed in 1998 in the city of Nantes. The collaboration group consists of 4 French DJs: Atom and pFeL from Beat Torrent and 20Syl and Greem from Hocus Pocus. Each member of the group uses his turntable as an instrument, recreating in turn drums, bass guitars, scratching a guitar riff, or simulating a brass instrument.
They met during their high school years and as teens they were fascinated by the work of DJ Qbert and DJ Shadow, innovators in the art of turntablism. They set off to make a name for themselves at the turn of the millennium and soon started developing their own unique performing style.
Musical career
In September 2006, C2C won their fourth DMC team world championship title in a row. With their previous victories in 2003, 2004, and 2005, they achieved a first quadruple. They also won the ITF team championship in 2005 and the Hip Hop World Challenge title. These successes allowed them to perform all around the world with DJ Qbert, A-Trak, DJ Kentaro, Scratch Perverts, and DJ Vadim.Both 20syl and Greem are founders of Hocus Pocus. One of their albums, released on Motown France, has earned them two nominations at the Victoires de la Musique, France's equivalent of the Grammys. DJ Atom and pFeL, founders of Beat Torrent, have performed almost one thousand concerts and have been featured in each other's album releases.
The group released their first EP called Down the Road, on January 23, 2012, and their first album, Tetra, on 3 September 2012. The cover art of this album was done by design agency LVL Studio, and features a photograph by Wang Chien-Yang. The single 'Down the Road' was voted into 88th place in the annual Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2012.
Their album Tetra earned them 4 trophies out of 4 nominations during the 2013 edition of Victoires de la Musique, including “Best New Artist”, “Best Music Video”, and “Best Live Show”.
C2C are winners of the 2013 European Border Breakers Awards, which honor the best new music acts in Europe. The award ceremony takes place at the Eurosonic Noorderslag music festival in Groningen, Netherlands.
Their song "Down the Road" was used in the 6th episode of the first season of The 100.
Live performance
The band uses tailor-made LED-display systems to provide a dynamic visual representation of their performances. During the summer of 2012, the group toured around Europe performing in many sold-out events. In early 2013, they received two European Border Breakers Awards, one as the laureate for France, the other being the Public Choice award.During their AV tour they included original ideas for enhancing their live performances. “Every time we drop a sound there will be a visual,” says pFeL. “It brings another dimension to the show.”
Music Videos
C2C has released 6 music videos for their tracks featured on Tetra: “F.U.Y.A.”, released on December 7, 2011, features C2C in a castle corridor, with numerous duplicates, performing the various beats and sound-effects for the song in the video; “Down the Road”, originally released just as an official song video on YouTube on January 22, 2012, and was re-released as a music video on June 8, 2012, featuring pro-skateboarder Richie Jackson interacting with a reality-bending skateboard; “The Beat”, released on June 21, 2012, features rotoscoped images of the C2C members playing the song to a variety of flashing shapes; “Arcades”, released on August 8, 2012, features a woman dancing with some mirrored and multi-patterned images; “Happy ”, released on December 12, 2012, features a black and white film about a group of men joyously dancing at a roadside tent-church; and “Delta”, released on September 25, 2013, features an animated story of a civilization of blue aliens trying to fight against an inverted pyramid.All of the videos have received at least a million views on YouTube; as of January 17, 2020, “F.U.Y.A.” has 11.5 million, “Down the Road” has 29.3 million as an official song and 11.7 million as a music video respectively, “The Beat” has 1.9 million, “Arcades” has 3.7 million, “Happy ” has 21.6 million and “Delta” has 32.6 million.
Members
| Name | Background | Instruments |
| DJ Atom | Beat Torrent founding member and producer at Soul Square | Turntables, keyboards, programming |
| 20syl | Hocus Pocus MC & founding member | MC, guitar |
| DJ Greem | Hocus Pocus DJ, Vinyl Addict radio host, Ex Tribeqa DJ | engineering, bass |
| DJ pFeL | Beat Torrent founding member & ex Beat Assailant DJ | Drums |