Laurent Garnier - The Cloud Making Machine

We could discuss Laurent Garnier’s illustrious DJ career, emerging as one of the preeminent figures in the Manchester club scene of the 80’s. Or how about his stylistic versatility, deftly mixing such genres as Trip-Hop, Acid Techno and Jazzy House? So for someone so heavily involved in the European Dance and Rave scene, you would expect The Cloud Making Machine to be an album of Euro-thump beats, filter sweeps, and piercing synth blasts – music to crack a few glow sticks to dance for 3 days straight. That is why it’s important to know that The Cloud Making Machine is not an album to dance to. I say it’s not an album to dance to, but in the way that Röyksopp makes dance music that you can’t dance to. It’s a mixture of down-tempo cut and paste percussion, clicks and hums, real drums and spoken word samples. Floating over these audio textures are Jazz keyboards – and when I say jazz, I don’t mean a few diminished 7th chords, but actual Jazz. The album plays like the soundtrack to an unreleased Terry Gilliam film. Garnier has been moving beyond dance beats and DJ sets, and it is these new influences that shine through on this album. The French DJ recently joined Norwegian Jazz pianist Bugge Wesseltoft at the Montreux Jazz festival. Wesseltoft repaid the favor by playing on this album, along with other musicians and DJs such as Sangoma Everett, Philippe Nadaud, and Dhafer Youssef (that’s right, THE Dhafer Youssef, Tunisian singer and master Oud player!). I can’t pretend like I’m really knowledgeable about much of European rave culture, or modern Jazz and world artists for that matter. I do know that this album intrigues me in a very welcome way… something quite different from what I would normally hear. Sometimes it’s just refreshing to find something unlike anything else you own, to let you know there is more than just the latest indie rock hot pick of the week. Something you don’t have to completely understand to enjoy; something that is avant-garde and without being simply Bjork-esque. [www.thecloudmakingmachine.com]