Album review

Laurent Garnier

French Techno Comes of Age

Paris 

18/02/2000 - 

Laurent Garnier, renowned as one of France's leading techno stars and roving international ambassador of the "French Touch", is an electro fanatic. Right from his earliest recordings, released on his own independent label F.Communications, this talented 30-something has worked towards creating his own personal style (albeit heavily influenced by American techno). Breaking away from his award-winning DJ work, Garnier is currently back in the music news with a remarkable - and very mature - third album entitled "Unreasonable Behaviour".

Garnier launched his DJ-ing career at the Hacienda, a legendary nightclub in Manchester co-owned by the group New Order. The talented young "Frenchie" - better known as DJ Pedro at the time - wasted no time in establishing an excellent reputation on the club scene thanks to his smooth mixing skills and his ability to whip the dancefloor into a house frenzy. Garnier rose to fame just as the acid-house craze exploded on the UK dance scene, impressing clubbers with his catchy sets and his typically French sound. In fact, Garnier and his faithful collaborator Eric Morand (with whom he now runs the independent French label F.Com) were partly responsible for inventing the expression "French Touch". Back in the days when F. Com went under the name Fnac Music, the pair came up with the bright idea of designing free-gift jackets with the slogan "We give a French touch to house" emblazoned across the back. And this was long before the days of Daft Punk, Cassius, Demon and Superfunk!

Over the next ten years Laurent Garnier and his record collection flew around the world, getting club dancefloors grooving everywhere from New York and London to Tokyo and Berlin. In the process Garnier built up an enthusiastic following of fans, creating an intimate relationship with his audiences. Not surprisingly, Garnier has won a whole string of awards in the course of his career and the specialist music press has voted him Best DJ in the World several times over. Garnier's non-stop travels have brought him into contact with the likes of Derrick May, Mad Mike and Carl Craig - the legendary founding figures of the house movement - and he has had no difficulty in proving himself their equal. Meanwhile, presenting regular music programmes on leading French radio stations such as FG, Radio Nova and Fun Radio (although the latter experience was notoriously short-lived), Garnier introduced French teenagers to the joys of house and electro beats.

Garnier's first album "Shot In The Dark", which hit record stores in 1994, was a rather awkward debut, the album's overall style being too obviously influenced by his recent DJ-ing experience. Indeed, many of the tracks on "Shot In The Dark" did not seem to move much beyond simple dancefloor gratification. Lucid and fully aware of his limits, Garnier locked himself away in the studio and threw himself body and soul into the elaboration of his second album, 30. Released on F.Com in 1997, this album found Garnier attempting to move away from the club dancefloor and experiment with his own compositions. This meant laying his trusty DJ reflexes to one side and trying to forge a new musical identity through machines, computers and studio mixing decks rather than on the turntables. 30 proved a big hit with both dance fans and the music critics and in 1998 Garnier scooped a "Victoire de la musique" award (in the newly-created Dance category). He went on to bring the house down when he appeared at the legendary Olympia in Paris, performing an ambitious and totally innovative form of "live" techno with a violinist and a percussion-player.

Besides being a talented innovator, Garnier is also a renowned anti-conformist who is not afraid to speak out on issues close to his heart. A passionate defender of 'techno culture', Garnier has always shown himself willing to give a helping hand to up-and-coming techno acts, frequently mixing little-known records into his sets. The "French Touch" star has also denounced the excessive greed of major record labels and the French government's repressive policies towards 'techno culture' and spoken out strongly against teenage violence.

Garnier fell victim to teenage violence himself when he played at Paris's first Techno Parade in 1998. Just as he was winding up his set at the Parade's finale at Place de la Nation, riots broke out in the audience, a gang of 200 kids from the Paris suburbs erupting onto the open-air dancefloor and threatening clubbers with knives. Garnier, who was trapped in the chaos for two entire hours, prefers not to enter the debate about the supposed rivalry between 'techno youth' and 'rap posses from the suburbs', admitting that he finds this sudden surge of violence as bewildering and inexplicable as everyone else.

Nevertheless Garnier's third album, Unreasonable Behaviour, does contain several references to social problems and pressing global issues. Musically speaking, this remarkable album is a mix of soft, dreamy tracks such as "City Sphere" and "Last Tribute From The 20th Century" and bursts of ferocious techno energy such as "Dangerous Drive" and "The Sound Of The Big Babou". A darker more unsettling note appears to have crept into Garnier's work since his previous albums, imbuing a track like "Forgotten Thoughts" with a powerful melancholic force and lingering vaguely over the rest of the album. In fact, with "Unreasonable Behaviour" Garnier succeeds - where so many other artists before him have failed - in bringing subtle jazz ambiences and electro beats together on one album. What's more, the "French Touch" star's recent live concerts with sax-player Philippe Nadot and his experience at the 1998 Montreux Jazz Festival have brought an interesting new flavour to tracks such as "City Sphere" and "The Man With The Red Face".

Given his reputation for innovation, it comes as no surprise to learn that Garnier launched his own website on January 15th. The site revolves heavily around music - of course! - and clicking on any of the icons instantly sets off a burst of sampling from the new album. Garnier's website also features some amazing graphics courtesy of Seb Jarnot (the designer responsible for the eye-catching illustrations which accompany the CD). The site gives cyber music fans access to a wide range of information including Garnier's full discography as well as photos and a selection of his favourite tracks. What's more, laurentgarnier.com provides a list of interesting links - many of them completely unrelated to the music world - and also gives fans the chance to win a special CD of Garnier's master mixes. Which is, you'll agree, more than one good reason to check out the work of one of France's leading techno geniuses!

Nicolas Mollé
Translation: Julie Street

Laurent Garnier "Unreasonable Behaviour" (F Communications/Pias)