Laurent Garnier: beginnings in the legendary Haçienda club in Manchester, scribe of the history of dance music, techno monolith – it’s at this point that one might reach for the phrase ‘needs no introduction’ but maybe it’s a bit late for that.
With five EPs out this year on five labels (Hypercolour, MCDE, Musique Large, Still Music, 50 Weapons) and a sixth release coming (as well as a hefty slab of book, too, hopefully), Garnier has made diversity the key focus for his output. It’s an approach reflected upon both in his mix and throughout our in-depth interview with him, where the veteran French DJ and producer lets off steam about the current musical climate, the contemporary auteurs of electronic music and the recycling of audio culture generally and especially over the last 25 years. There’s also a bit about his new records too.
The two things that drive our lengthy conversation are the stagnation of club culture – the sticking of the needle – and the tightrope of the modern DJ, on one side the devotion to honesty and on the other the necessity of exploration, Garnier’s navigation of which is perhaps one of the reasons why he has enjoyed such a mammoth career.
The Martiko’s, a DJ Collective from the self-styled “exotic label” Radio Martiko, with a mixtape of their influential records from their vinyl collection. This all vinyl mix include tracks from The Ganimian & His orientals, Sihail Rana, Casbah, Waipod Phetsuphan, Yuzo Kayama, Litsa Diamadi and more.
Radio Martiko dig deep into the vaults of exotic vinyl…. two killer raw vintage dance tunes from the 60’s, combining the best of the East and the West, will be released to the stores in April. Getting these tunes on original 45 is rather tough, so grab your chance!
they are
The Latins / Habibi Twist
Alba And Orchestre Aris / Alba’s Shake
Broadcast live on WNYU 89.1FM in New York City on February 3rd, 2015.
It’s difficult to get signed to a label as a newcomer, and there’s a lot of talent out of there that isn’t getting recognised. With the surfeit of digital only labels flooding the music market and making it so easy to miss the good stuff, we thought that there was room for another label based on physical product, as taking the time to press a record at least shows a confidence in the music you’re releasing which should hopefully represent some standard of quality and increase the chances of these new voices being heard.
The label isn’t purely about new artists, but the majority of our next six or seven releases all feature someone breaking through in some way, even if the releases are bookmarked by a remix by one of mine or Peter’s more well known friends.
LBL is a new Label Project brought to you by Man Power (Hivern Discs, Correspondant) and Peter Wilson (Join Our Club, People Get Real).
In a forthcoming FACT feature, techno legend Jeff Mills reveals some of his plans for 2015 and 2016.
He and fellow Detroit vet Mike Banks are, Mills reveals, planning to tour their collaborative project X-102 in 2016. The pair are still “figuring out how we would do it”, but the prospect of live revisions of 1992’s landmark X-102 album Discovers the Rings of Saturn should have techno fans’ mouths watering. On top of that, he’s working on a sequel to 2004’s CD/DVD The Exhibitionist.
“We still have a little bit more filming and production to do”, Mills explains, “but it’s going to be very interesting. It still falls in the same line as the first Exhibitionist – it’s an observation about the art form of DJing, but it’s from more different perspective. We cover the art form in a very comprehensive way in the second one, so this probably will be the last one, but it really explains a lot about the mindset and the concepts and the procedure of how a DJ does what he does.”
FACT called up another noted science fiction buff – Scottish musician and designer Konx-om-Pax– to grill Jeff on the subject they both know best.
A deep lover of the Italian cosmic disco scene from the late 70’s and 80’s, Sasa Crnobrnja moved to NYC after meeting his close compadre and In Flagranti partner Alex Gloor in Basel, Switzerland. Their disco-inspired label Codek Records continues to churn out dance-worthy groovers from artists like Freddie Mas, Flora & Fauna, and In Flagranti themselves. This month, Sasa lays down a just over an hour of forward thinking, synth-filled goodness including tunes from Paris’ I’m a Cliche imprint, a new release from Join Our Club’s Bird of Paradise, londonhousingtrust, and more. Tune in! Tracklist here.
“Spiritus Rector” marks the beginning of a fresh series of edits.
Collected, a new anthology recently released on the Music Pour La Danse imprint, pulls together Ro Maron productions from 1988 to 1991 – a three-year window in which he released a staggering amount of music across a dizzying number of labels and pseudonyms, with esoteric and mysterious names like SM, Le Mystere, Sleep Walker, Agaric and Air Of Gloom. Optimo’s JD Twitch calls him “one of the top five users of a 303 of all time”. But Rembert De Smet, aka Ro Maron, remains little known outside of the relatively obscure genre of Belgian new beat. Ro Maron details five of his classic productions exclusively for FACT.
Musique Pour La Danse’s meaty double vinyl @45rpm inside out cover CD version included will be released to the stores in February.
