Daniel Vangarde

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

In the early 1970s, he worked with French singers, husband and wife Ringo (real name Guy Bayle) and Sheila (later known as Sheila B. Devotion), 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. The song "Yamasuki" was used over the closing credits in the movie Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014). The song "Yama Yama" was featured in the opening of Fargo (TV series) season 2 episode 3 (2015).

Vangarde's main international successes came later in the 1970s, as writer and producer with Ottawan ("D.I.S.C.O.") and the Gibson Brothers ("Cuba"). He also worked extensively with the Antillean group La Compagnie Créole, popular in France in the 1980s.

...
Wikipedia