September 13 marked the sixth anniversary of Mehdi’s death and regardless of that, I had actually dug out Signatune by chance shortly before to hear this extraordinary and incredibly energetic track again. This track seems a little lost, almost pointless, in the Lucky Boy album, as it starts practically with the hook* and, with a running time of just over a minute, is over pretty quickly too. It follows the style of the album to the extreme and not only serves the French, rather techno-leaning house, but with its short, DJ-tool-like tracks also reflects Mehdi’s hip-hop past.

The entire Ed Banger squad around Busy P flooded Instagram with posts in remembrance of Mehdi this year, and rightly so. Many other musicians, including A-Trak, did the same, and it was A-Trak who paid a wonderful tribute to Mehdi with his minimix in 2011. When Signatune appears in this mix (at minute 2:40), I get almost painful goosebumps, and that’s not the only reason why this track is firmly in my top 3 all-time favourites.

Thomas Bangalter’s edit was used for the official Signatune video, equally brilliant:

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Featured image credit: Michael Grech via flickr, CC-licensed
* Hook or hookline: the most distinctive, character-defining feature of a song (if anyone asks).