reviews / 2006

LAURENT GARNIER - The Kings Of Techno

Name: LAURENT GARNIER – The Kings Of Techno
Item: The Kings Of Techno
Rating: 5
Author: Michele Camerin

2006 (Bbe / Rapster)

techno

by Michele Camerin

After enlisting big names for the "The Kings Of.." series (from Dj Premier for hip-hop to Masters At Work for House), Rapster reaches the techno chapter and makes sure to put two of the genre's key historical figures behind the decks: Frenchman Laurent Garnier and American Carl Craig. Two excellent guides, you might say.

The first part is entrusted to the hands of the Frenchman Garnier, who stays true to the legendary definition "techno is George Clinton and Kraftwerk stuck in an elevator" and takes the long way round, starting with "No Fun" by the Stooges before probing black-music territory with Aretha Franklin ("Rock Steady") and the Temptations ("Plastic Man"), closing out with Clinton's own Funkadelic and their "Bettinos Bounce". Then, skipping a decade ahead, we're suddenly plunged into the heady rush of the second wave of Detroit techno with Jeff Mills ("Utopia"), Arpanet ("NTT Docomo"), D.I.E ("Get Up") and Carl Craig's own alias BFC with "Galaxy". A surprise ending comes courtesy of hip-hop's new white prodigy Dabrye, who closes out the selection curated by Laurent Garnier with his "Game Over".

The second part has Carl Craig picking the tracks, and we're thrown straight into the Eighties with Visage's "Frequency 7" (the band known for their hit "Fade To Gray") and Kano's gorgeous "It's A War", before touring Europe with Yello ("No More Words"), Art Of Noise ("Beat Box Diversion 1"), Nitzer Ebb ("Join The Chant") and our own Alexander Robotnick with "Dance Boy Dance", wrapping up with the tail end of Choice's "Acid Eiffel".

Garnier's "encyclopedic" intent is an interesting one, but it ends up offering, on one hand, half a set of tracks that did influence techno yet bear only a very loose connection to its actual history, and on the other, interesting tracks that, without any real focus on techno's birth in the second half of the Eighties (the Frenchman doesn't dedicate a single track to it!), come across as completely out of context. Tracks with no cohesion and no real logic, presenting techno in a way that's far, far too partial.

Craig, on the other hand, digs a little deeper and focuses on the European continent, offering a series of tracks of undeniable importance, but which, in a compilation with these premises, also end up feeling too superficial and muddled, with no apparent logic other than trying to impress with an unusual selection.

Craig and Garnier really are the "Kings Of Techno", though not in this case.

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10/04/2007

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Michele Camerin, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition

Tracklist

1. Laurent Garnier-Mix
2. Yusef Lateef - The Plum Blossom
3. Dabrye Feat. Jay Dee and Phat Kat - Game Over
4. Jay Dee - Beej-N-Dem Pt. 2
5. Aretha Franklin - Real Rock Steady
6. Arpanet - NTT DoCoMo
7. BFC - Galaxy
8. Instinct - Just A Feeling
9. Carl Craig - No More Words
10. MK - Burning
11. Hamilton Bohannon - Me And The Gang
12. D.I.E. (Detroit In Effect) - Get Up
13. Adult - Don't Talk (Redux)
14. The Stooges - No Fun
15. Jeff Mills - Utopia
16. Funkadelic - Bettino's Bounce
17. Alice Coltrane Feat. Pharaoh Sanders - Journey In Satchidananda
18. Underground Resistance - Amazon (live)
19. Carl Craig-Mix
20. Capricorn - In Need Love (Instrumental)
21. Nitzer Ebb - Join In The Chant
22. Martin Circus - Disco Circus
23. Kano - It's A War
24. Yellow Magic Orchestra - Computer Games
25. Yello - No More Words
26. Liaisons Dangereuses - Peut Etre Pas
27. Alexander Robotnik - Dance Boy Dance
28. Choice - Acid Eiffel
29. The Black Dog - Virtual
30. The Flying Lizards - Flesh & Steel
31. Balil - Norte Route
32. Visage - Frequency 7
33. Severed Heads - The Ant Can See Legs

LAURENT GARNIER on the web

Official website

Laurent Garnier on OndaRock

Monograph

Laurent Garnier

Tech-house for alien nights

From epic Parisian raves to the empyrean of international clubs: the irresistible rise of Laurent Garnier, the first ambassador of "French touch" and a key figure in the evolution of house and techno music