Archive for the ‘Ken Ishii’ Category

Laurent Garnier

Sunday, May 27th, 2012

Listen: Crispy Bacon / Laurent Garnier
Crispy

In New York, a tropical rain soaked day during May is perfect excuse to draw the blinds, switch on the a/c and unbox some singles that need filing.

During the late 90′s, many of us in the Columbia A&R department got weekly shipments from the UK office containing all the latest releases. Unlike everyone else, my preferred configuration was vinyl. So like clockwork, as soon as a couple of twenty five count 7″ boxes were full, I’d UPS them home. Just as routinely, upon arrival, into the black hole of storage they went. On special occasions, like today, out come several and the surprises begin.

The things I find are wild. Where the hell did this or that come from usually being my reaction.

I hadn’t ever recalled getting ‘Crispy Bacon’ on a 7″ or that one existed. I’m surprised it didn’t come home day-of as most real favorites did. And man, did I love this record. Even if you only visited the UK or Europe during the single’s Fall ’97 heyday, you couldn’t miss it. Seems this was played everywhere. A record so simple and stripped back, I found it impossible to tire of. Earlier today, having not heard ‘Crispy Bacon’ for ages, we slapped it onto my trusty Dual with it’s automatic repeat function and barely noticed the song’s five minute length had passed, playing it over and over, a good twenty times.

Laurent Garnier triple billed with Ken Ishii and LTJ Bukem in Belgium at the time. Columbia sent me over to have a look, as Ken Ishii was a Sony Japan act looking for a US label. What a fantastic night that was.