Taking techno to a new level

The DJ as composer-jazz leader is a concept well-established in Europe. DJ-led groups like Gabin and the Matthew Herbert Jazz Orchestra are just two examples that have come through Prague in recent months.

However, no one approaches the intensity and ever-expanding diversity in sound quite like Laurent Garnier, who ranks among the best-known techno DJs in Europe. Garnier made a significant imprint in the electro-jazz world with his 2000 release Unreasonable Behavior, which included a nine-minute-plus epic, "The Man with the Red Face," that uniquely merged electronic beats (deep house and techno) with a free and swinging jazz horn (saxophone, by Philippe Nadaud).

Garnier has headlined several festivals in the Czech Republic as a DJ. But his local fans have had only one chance to see him in a small venue, when he brought his band to Akropolis in autumn 2007 for what turned out to be a thumping techno-jazz show. He must have enjoyed it, as he and his band are returning to Akropolis Saturday night.

Garnier, born in France in 1966, first began DJing in Manchester, England, in 1987, at the beginning of the Acid House scene. He drew his inspiration mainly from 1970s disco anthems (by divas like Donna Summer) and the early experimental Detroit techno and Chicago house producer/DJs.

Since then, Garnier has forged an electronic sound that is not easily classifiable. It has strains of deep house, dark-industrial techno, Latin (salsa soul), dubstep, funk, disco and jazz, all melded into a dramatic, high-speed blur. In that sense he's a fusion DJ, and with his live jazz group, Garnier seems to have adopted the same attitude as jazz fusion stars like Miles Davis (during his Bitches Brew era), or the more popular mid-'70s jazz-funk fusion group Head Hunters, which featured Herbie Hancock and Billy Cobham.

Ten years since the release of Unreasonable Behavior, "The Man with the Red Face" still sounds ahead of its time, though it remains unacknowledged in jazz circles - just as Head Hunters' classics like "Chameleon" were also resisted by jazz fans, and not fully appreciated until later generations expanded their jazz horizons into, for example, the acid jazz scene of the late 1980s.  

Garnier's jazz should similarly stand out over time. His album Public Outburst (2007), recorded with the Finnish progressive jazz pianist (and producer) Bugge Wesseltoft, saxophonist Nadaud and keyboard-player Benjamin Rippert, is a further expansion of jazz, at times slowing down the tempo by incorporating dub and noisy electronics, recalling the '70s sounds of jazz-funk and rock fusion.

Layered over this, Garnier adds deeper nuances, like a 21st-century Gil Evans or Dizzy Gillespie. Garnier subtly develops his unmistakable slow-building, mesmerizing beats into hard-driving techno anthems, with live players incorporating more contemporary jazz motifs.

On his current tour, Garnier is promoting Tales of a Kleptomanic, a new disc scheduled for an April release that takes him back to his dance music roots - techno meets '70s funk and jazz. Traveling with him are Nadaud (sax), Benjamin Ripper (keyboards), Philippe Anicaux (trumpet) and, on machines, Scan X.

"I'm trying to bring as many different styles of music onstage with it live," Garnier says. "The idea behind it all is having fun. Whether it's four on the floor or fat funky beats, we'll try to represent the album the best way we can. And, quite honestly, I can't wait to go back onstage with the musicians and play some music."

So this will be an event for techno lovers and open-minded jazz fans alike. Then, for a glorious after-party, head to Roxy, where Garnier, considered among the best and most sought-after DJs in the world, will play a three-hour solo DJ set starting at 1 a.m.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at
features@praguepost.com