Black Strobe

Black Strobe

Black Strobe is a French electronic group from Paris, formed in 1997. The group initially consists of Arnaud Rebotini and DJ Ivan Smagghe, and later expands with the addition of other musicians. Its membership includes Benjamin Beaulieu, Arnaud Rebotini and Ivan Smagghe.

Style and work

Black Strobe’s music is associated with electro, electroclash and electronic body music. The group also works in techno and electroclash, and its sound draws on a hard-edged electronic approach.

Remixes and recordings

Across its first decade, Black Strobe remixes a wide range of artists, including Depeche Mode, Bloc Party, Röyksopp, Goldfrapp, The Rapture, The Hacker, David Guetta, Rammstein and Ayumi Hamasaki. In 2007 the group releases Burn Your Own Church. After this, Ivan Smagghe leaves and Arnaud Rebotini continues the project on his own.

In 2009 the EP Back From Beyond appears on Supersoul Recordings. A video for it is made at the start of the following year by Laurent Chanez, whom Rebotini meets in 2004 through the Groupe de recherches musicales (G.R.M.). In 2010 Black Strobe returns to live activity, and Rebotini launches his own label, Blackstrobe Records.

Tracks in film and television

The group’s cover of Bo Diddley’s I'm a Man is used in trailers for RocknRolla, Django Unchained and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and it also appears in Le Mac, The Walking Dead, We're the Millers and The Vampire Diaries. The track Shining Bright Star also appears in the trailer for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

Label activity

The track Me & Madonna is reissued on Kitsuné Records, and a remix of it by The Twelves appears on Kitsuné Maison Compilation 10: The Fireworks Issue.