Submitted By: axus

Genre: Techno

Date of Set: Nov 6th, 1999

Filesize: 73.00 MB

Total Downloads: 176

For techno aficionados, Jeff Mills needs no introduction as he represents the ultimate in minimal, hard but funky house and techno. More than just club tracks, his cleverly crafted compositions have been hailed as soundtracks to modern life and he has stated that each work represents the next part in a series of gradual progressions that is orchestrated by experiences and destiny. Jeff, the seminal Detroit techno originator who has been running his own Axis Records label since 1991, was originally one of the legendary Detroit techno collective Underground Resistance. He has been making music for well over a decade and has been DJ'ing for longer, including years spent as a radio DJ.

Jeff Mills is credited with laying the foundations for legendary Detroit Techno collective, Underground Resistance, alongside 'Mad' Mike Banks, a former Parliament bass player. Just like Public Enemy did some years before in hip hop, they confronted the mainstream music industry with revolutionary rhetoric.

Dressed in uniforms with skimasks and black combat suits, they were ‘men on a mission’, aiming at giving techno more content and meaning. Mills would never leave UR officially, but later on he still went his own way. He moved to New York and after a short stay in Berlin (Tresor) ended up in Chicago. There he set up his two labels, Axis and Purposemaker.

Mills has also been credited for his exceptional turntable skills. Tracks are almost chopped to bits to showcase the strongest fragments for his relentless sound collages. Three decks, a Roland 909 drum-machine and seventy records in one hour: at breakneck speed Mills manipulates beats and basslines, vinyl and frequencies. In the course of the eighties he was an influential radio-deejay under the pseudonym ‘The Wizard’. He used to spin obscure dance and New Wave, far from the funk and minimal, throbbing club techno with which he would go on making a name for himself, inspiring lots of copycats.

The best (or the most popular in all respects) techno-deejay in the world. And with a unique style: tracks are almost chopped up to bits only to withhold the strongest fragments for his relentless sound-collages. Three decks, a Roland 909 drum-machine and seventy records in one hour: at breakneck speed Mills manipulates beats and basslines, vinyl and frequencies. In the course of the eighties he was an influential radio-deejay under the pseudonym ‘The Wizard’. He used to spin obscure dance-records and new wave, far from the thermonuclear funk and minimal, throbbing clubtechno with which he would go on making a name for himself, inspiring lots of copycats. In ’90 Mills laid the foundation of the legendary Detroit techno collective Underground Resistance alongside ‘Mad’ Mike Banks (a former Parliament bass-player). Just like Public Enemy did some years before in hip hop, they confronted the mainstream music industry with revolutionary retorics. Dressed in uniforms with skimasks and black combat suits, they were ‘men on a mission’, aiming at giving techno more content and meaning. Mills would never leave UR officially, but later on he still went his own way. He moved to New York and after a short stay in Berlin (Tresor!) ended up in Chicago. There he set up his two labels, Axis and Purposemaker. Through all this, he stuck to his principles: grand theories and ambitious concepts. On the recent cd ‘Lifelike’ Mills turns to colour-psychology for a professional screening of his personality. And the music primarily shows the subdued, soulful and melancholic Mills, this time maker of serene electronics with a surprising depth and emotion.

http://www.myspace.com/jeffmills2006

Submitted By: axus

Genre: Techno

Date of Set: Nov 6th, 1999

Filesize: 73.00 MB

Total Downloads: 176

A short warning signals the opening of Laurent Garnier’s long-awaited new album. Those who were expecting ‘Unreasonable Behaviour’ to be yet another techno album will be in for a surprise. Following on from the direction he began to explore with his album ‘30’ in 1996, this latest album, is very much a more personal exploration of electronic music and finds equal meaning both on and off the dancefloor.

Since his debut at Manchester’s Hacienda in 1987, the beginning of the Acid House explosion, Laurent Garnier has played a key role in the development of the electronic music scene. Over the last ten years he has built up his international reputation by playing at all the major clubs and festivals worldwide. During this time he has been voted best international DJ by the music press and has built up a very special relationship with his public. Laurent Garnier is very different from your average DJ. You only have to witness the queues of enthousiasts in front of the Rex Club in Paris or L’Anfer in Dijon where he held long-term residencies.

Laurent Garnier is respected by both the godfathers of techno in Detroit, with whom he has built close links, as well as by the younger generation of producers and DJs to whom he has given a taste for electronic music through his DJ sets and radio shows.. Aside from his successful DJ career, Laurent Garnier has always produced his own music. In 1991, he released a series of Eps on the Fnac Dance Division label. This work continued with the creation of his own record label F Communications in 1994, with Eric Morand. The release of tracks such as ‘Acid Eiffel’ and ‘Wake Up’ on FNAC Dance Division served as a springboard for a new French electronic scene. Rarely before had French music been so easy to export. In effect, Laurent Garnier became the first ambassador for French house and techno abroad. In October 1994, he released his first album ‘Shot in the Dark’ and subsequently became one of the first French artists to be invited to perform on the prestigious ‘Peel Sessions’, broadcast on BBC Radio 1.

The release of his second album ‘30’ was another turning point in Laurent Garnier’s career. From here on, Garnier decided to slow down his hectic DJ schedule in order to concentrate on producing more of his own music. However, this did not prevent him Djing on the main stage at the first Techno Parade in Paris in September 1998, in front of an audience of 100,000 people. That same year he won the ‘Victoire De La Musique’ award for his album ‘30’ ;a great honour as this was the first year that there was a category for Dance music. During the award ceremony at the Olympia in Paris, he performed ‘Acid Eiffel’ live, accompanied by violin and percussion. As a result of this performance being broadcast live on French national prime-time TV techno, which had previously been misunderstood finally began to gain recognition from a wider French public.

He fine-tuned his live show whilst performing at several of the major European festivals (Sonar, Borealis, T in The Park, Creamfields…) before returning that same year to the stage of the Olympia accompanied by 14 musicians and dancers. The experience of this performance and the full European tour that followed , including the Montreux Jazz Festival, proved to be a very important influence on his album ‘Unreasonable Behaviour’. With the release of ‘Unreasonable Behaviour’, Laurent Garnier has produced his most accomplished and personal album to date. This surprising record does not shy away from exploring more diverse and tormented sounds than we have previously been accustomed to in his work. The jazzy echoes of ‘City Sphere’ and ‘The Man With The Red Face’, are undoubtedly a direct link with Garnier’s live experience, the saxophonist playing on these tracks, Philippe Nadot, accompanied Laurent Garnier on his tour. The first single released from the album, ‘The Sound Of Big Baboo’, with a video by Vito Rocco (who previously directed Jimi Tenor’s ‘Take Me baby’), and also ‘Dangerous Drive’ are exercises in driving techno in a similar vein to ‘Crispy Bacon’, and are sure not to disappoint the dancefloor. Other tracks such as ‘Communication From The Lab’ and ‘Downfall’are as haunting as the soundtrack to a terrifying thriller, as with the surprising ‘Greed’. And of course we can discover in tracks such as ‘Last Tribute To The 20th Century’ and ‘Cycles D’Opposition’, Garnier’s love for the American productions that have been an inspiration to him for so long.

With this third ambitious album, Laurent Garnier proves that he is not only a great DJ but more importantly a musician apart.

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