Laurent Garnier

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Laurent Garnier
Garnier in 2006
Background information
Born	February 1, 1966 (1966-02-01) (age 43)
Origin	Boulogne-sur-Seine, France

Laurent Garnier (born February 1, 1966) is a French techno music producer and DJ. Laurent Garnier began DJ-ing in Manchester during the late 1980s. By the following decade, he had a broad stylistic range, able to span classic deep house and Detroit techno, the harder side of acid/trance and jazzy tracks as well. He added production work to his schedule in the early 1990s and recorded several LPs.

Early influences

During the late 1970s Laurent Garnier discovered clubbing with his brother in Paris, where his family lived. He loved disco but also listened to all other contemporary musical genres including reggae, funk, and punk. At the age of 16 Laurent was already interested in clubs and DJs and had started recording and mixing music on basic tape recorders.

In 1984, Laurent started working as a waiter for the French Embassy in London. He stayed there for a year and a half before moving to Manchester in 1986. Living in England was a revelation for him, as he discovered the booming UK house scene and started DJing.

Career

In 1987 he discovered the Haçienda club in Manchester and met Mike Pickering the resident DJ. Chicago House and Detroit Techno became very popular, and Garnier started mixing at the Haçienda club under the name of DJ Pedro. Garnier becomes one of the first continental Europeans to begin mixing American house music in Britain^{[citation needed]}, Garnier was one of the prime cogs in the late-1980s Madchester scene.^{[citation needed]} His DJing at Manchester's Haçienda club provided an inspiration for The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays to begin adding house rhythms to rock music.^{[citation needed]}

In 1988 he went back to France to fulfill his military obligations. He also spent some time in New York where he met Frankie Knuckles. Garnier shifted his attention back to France in the early 1990s, running the Wake Up parties at the Rex Club in Paris for three years, also mixing in clubs like le Palace or le Boy, DJing in rave parties and gradually moving into recording as well. For the FNAC label, Garnier released "French Connection" and the Bout de Souffle EP; after the label went under, though, he formed the F Communications label with Eric Morand (a friend who had also worked for FNAC). He often also DJed at "Open all hours" at London's Ministry of Sound on Friday nights, in the early and mid 1990s, (one such set had a music press journalist enthusing 'Laurent Garnier is the best DJ in the world!') and was a resident at The End before its closure in January 2009.

His first LP, Shot in the Dark, came in 1995. His second, 30, appeared in 1997 and included one of Garnier's best selling singles, "Crispy Bacon". 30 was followed by the retrospective Early Works. After trotting the globe with multiple DJ appearances during the late 1990s, Garnier returned to the production realm with Unreasonable Behaviour, released in early 2000, which features one of Garnier's best known songs, "The Man with the Red Face". Garnier released an EP in 2002 and his latest full length album, The Cloud Making Machine, in 2005. His most recent album is Retrospective, a best-of which collects both his original work and remixes, including some vinyl-only or previously-unreleased tracks.

Garnier has also collaborated with System 7.

Selected discography

Albums

• Shot In The Dark (1994)
• 30 (1997)
• Unreasonable Behaviour (2000)
• EarlyWorks (Compilation) (2001)
• The Cloud Making Machine (2005)
• Retrospective 1994 - 2006 (2006)
• Public Outburst (Album Live) (2007)
• Tales of a Kleptomaniac (2009)

Singles

• French Connection (with Mix Master Doody) - Who cares - Creed records - 1991

With Fnac Music Dance Division

• French Connection (with Mix Master Doody) - As French Connection - 1991
• Stronger by design EP - 1992
• Join hands remixes - 1992
• Choice - Paris EP - 1993 (also published by Fragile Records)
• A bout de souffle EP - 1993 (also published by Warp Records)
• For house music lovers - 1993
• Alaska - Lost in Alaska - 1993
• Planet House EP - 1993

With F Communications

• Dune (with Pascal Feos) - Alliance EP - 1994
• Astral Dreams - 1994
• Alaska - Deuxième EP - 1995
• Club Traxx EP - 1995
• The Hoe - 1996
• Crispy Bacon part 1 (from 30) - 1997
• Crispy Bacon part 2 - 1997
• Flashback (from 30) - 1997
• Coloured city - 1998
• Club traxx EP vol 2 - 1998
• The sound of the big babou - 1999
• The man with the red face - 2000
• Greed - 2000
• Greed world wide remixes - 2000
• Sambou - 2002
• Alaska - Returning back to Sirius - 2003
• Marl Chingus (with Ludovic Llorca) - 6 month earlier - 2004
• The cloud making machine reworks vol 1 & 2 - 2005

With Innervisions

• Back To My Roots EP - 2008

DVD

• Greed - DVD single - F Communications, Film Office, TDK Mediactive - 2001
• Live à l'Elysée Montmartre - F communications - 2002

Compilations and dj sessions

• X-Mix - Destination Planet Dream (Studio !K7 - 1994)
• Mixmag Live Vol. 19 (1995)
• Laboratoire Mix (2xCD, React, 1996)
• Early Works (2xCD, 1998)
• Classic And Rare : La Collection Chapter 3 (F Communications, 2002)
• Excess Luggage (3xCD, F Communications, 2003)
• The Kings Of Techno (Rapster Records, 2006)
• Mixmag 25 Years Anniversary (2008)

External links

• Official Site
• Laurent Garnier profile at The End
• HarderFaster Interview
• Discography at Discogs
• Biography from RFI Musique (in French)

Audio links

• Laurent Garnier DJ mix