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.
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LAURENT GARNIER TICKETS
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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 continetal Europeans to begin mixing American house music in Britain, Garnier was one of the prime cogs in the late-1980s
Madchester scene. 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.
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)