new album ‘Tales of A Kleptomaniac’ – May, 11 2008

album press release


“What a rocket to kick off 2009....my gosh he's setting the bar high with his long awaited return to the land of music making...yes, yes my friend, Garnier's back!

On this his fifth proper album (not counting live sets and best ofs) the world's greatest DJ ( well... he was last time I heard him!) comes back with quite possibly his greatest album....Its taken a while we know, time also spent making children and moving down to Provence from Paris, but its been time well spent as I truly believe he's bettered ‘30’ and  'Unreasonable Behaviour' -not an easy feat considering they contained such classics as 'Crispy Bacon' and 'The man with the red face'.

But ‘Tales of a Kleptomaniac’ not only contains 'big club nuggets' like the Inner visions fronted 'Back to my Roots' and current monster 'Gnanmankoudji' with huge afro horn break n all....‘Tales of a Kleptomaniac’ is a brilliant work which, as the title suggests, represents perfectly, a man fanatically in touch with the natural development of music - he's like a chef cooking up a meal no one's ever thought of before....and it tastes mighty good - like a musical Heston Blumenthal!!

On this 12 track adventure Laurent balances the styles just right - from the dance floor to the grimy back room this collection covers Laurent's panoramic vision perfectly...
Kicking off with a modern day funk anthem 'No Musik' evokes groups like Kleeer and Cameo using Dub Step snares and electro sounds over a sugarhill rapture - I wish the Hacienda was still open today...
On 'Freeverse' Laurent drops what I can best describe as industrial beat box hip hop! some pure 09 freshness introducing Marseilles' MicFlow on the opening Frenchie version and a brilliant South African by the name of Tumi for part 2...Believe me when Zane Lowe heard this he flipped!
'Gnanmankoudji' first emerged as a broken beat slanted afro piece premiered on the beach in Sete last summer but has since grown into an out and out cross genre classic. He then takes us into 'Dealing with the Man' which kind of introduces us to the fine players taking us on this journey - a slow chugging beat - memories of the 'cloud making machine' and fine trumpet and piano accompaniment from Philippe Anicaud and Benjamin Rippert -yes, these guys can play...and Laurent can drop lyrics too... sweet - but who is the man?!!
Mister Garnier's legions of techno fans won't be disappointed with this album as Detroit's art gets a good going over - I personally, am right up for a bit of this!!! I've always loved hearing Laurent DJ and when he's swinging on the decks the techno shines through – you know the REAL techno spirit - the proper stuff - so between 'Desireless' , 'Back to my Roots' and 'Last dance @ Yellow' the purists can celebrate!

 

 

In fact Laurent's DJ credentials include being asked,( with Francois K) to play the last session of what was, to me at least, the greatest club in the world - Club Yellow in Tokyo, which sadly shut its doors for the final time in June - of course Laurent was there - and his ode to the club absolutely evokes the unique atmosphere of calm and ecstasy that emanated from this back street in Roppongi - r i p.
We are left with a few proper gems!
How can Laurent not drop some Drum and Bass pressure on us - Bourre Pif's gonna kick start any party baby...can't wait to drop this on New Year's eve!
'Pay TV' speaks for itself and a million travelling DJs love the drums here - big up Arnaud Rippert - a sort of French library porno rare groove if you know what I mean...maybe you don't!!! either way its phat!
The album concludes with some new World via 'From deep within' and glitchy Roots on 'Food for Thought' featuring the legendary Winston Mc Anuff...

‘Tales of a Kleptomaniac’ is a classic, possibly Laurent Garnier's greatest work and for that I salute him and look forward to the live shows throughout 2009...”

Gilles Peterson