Daniel Vangarde


Daniel Vangarde, born Daniel Bangalter in 1947, is a French songwriter and producer. He co-wrote and produced a number of hit records in the 1970s, including "Aie a Mwana", "D.I.S.C.O.", and "Cuba" .

History

In the early 1970s, he worked with French singers, husband and wife Ringo and Sheila, as well as releasing some records under his own name in France. On many of these and later records he worked with fellow writer and producer Jean Kluger.
In 1971 Vangarde and Kluger released the cult LP Le Monde Fabuleux Des Yamasuki as the Yamasuki Singers, a pseudo-Japanese concept album of pop songs, described on the sleeve of its CD reissue as "a fuzzed-out-educational-multi-cultural psych-rock-opera.... proto-psychedelic hip-hop with overweight drum beats and basslines", which much later became a highly sought-after source of drum and bass breaks. The song "Aieaoa" on the album was later recorded, as "Aie a Mwana", first by Black Blood and then by Bananarama, becoming the first UK hit for the latter group.
Vangarde's main international successes came later in the 1970s, as writer and producer with Ottawan's "D.I.S.C.O." and the Gibson Brothers's "Cuba". He also worked extensively with the Antillean group La Compagnie Créole, popular in France in the 1980s. As Who's Who he recorded the album Who's Who in 1979.
Vangarde is Jewish. Vangarde has made campaigns in the past to ensure that descendants of Jewish artists in France, whose rights were taken from them in the Second World War, received financial compensation.
In May, 2013, the London magazine Dazed & Confused featured an hour-long mix of funk, disco and electro produced by Vangarde.
Vangarde is the father of Thomas Bangalter, who is best known as a member of the electronic music duo Daft Punk. He is credited with aiding the duo in their early musical career.