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| "Jake Fairley has his shirt off and he is singing"; I noted to myself, at his latest Toronto gig in December. The Fukhouse party at System Soundbar also featured Pan/Tone, Jeremy Caulfield, Ian Guthrie, Dave Cooper, and others. The atmosphere of the club that night was transformed, it had an unusual vibe and a live performance aspect that I had missed since leaving the electro-influenced scene of Montreal. In Toronto and around the world, Jake Fairley and others are using their unique genre-bending style and creativity to vitalize techno. They are arguably destabilizing the kind of 'no-vocals-techno' as we know it from our rave stereotypes. However, different from before, DJs and producers today have to compete in a climate of over-saturation with DJs in both international and local techno industries. Jake Fairley is an example of an artist with a rock edge bringing freshness and new energy into techno clubs, and he's upping the ante for other DJs who don't even produce music, let alone sing live and perform front and center-stage at clubs. |
| In relation to the techno/vocals fusion path, both Jake Fairley and Pan/Tone have chosen Cologne, Germany as a base for now because of its openness and their ability to network there with other artists with similar sounds. For a long time, stereotypes about the nature of minimal and hard techno were ubiquitous in the uninformed mainstream. Techno was often perceived as strictly percussive beats. Jake challenges this new definition: "Techno has always been an extension of punk rock. It's always been about people who don't know what they're doing, making weird shit. Vocals fit in with it when you look at it from that angle. There is, of course, a tradition with mainstream dance music, but I like the weird shit. People who don't know what they're doing, like me. It's endearing listening to all the Kompact guys like Superpitcher singing their hearts out. That's emotional. Some studio-type girl paid by the hour and classically trained has no impact on me." |
| Jake is right - the roots of techno music tell us a similar story because the influences are much broader and fusion-based. Direct influences for techno include Afro-American jazz, Jamaican reggae, dub sound system and record pressing techniques, the European Kraftwerk, Chicago's and Italy's disco sounds, Psychedelic Rock such as Pink Floyd, Industrial bands such as Front 242 and EMB, and even the Miami electronic grooves scene. What's more, today this history continues with the current trends of integrating voice and electro-acoustics. Electronic artists who have blown up include the Underworld and Prodigy. There are also popular electro groups: Miss Kitten and the Hacker, Adult, Client, Fischerspooner and, on the electro-rap fusion tip from Montreal, Evening. Then there are electronic bands: Chicks on Speed, and Supercollider; and, in the house music vein, DJs who sing such as DJ Colette, the Rurals, and Green Velvet, plus the techno sounds of T. Raumschmiere, and Richie Hawtin's new album. The list goes on, because, both in the past and present, many artists are involving song and voice in their productions and live performances in club environments. |
| Fairley started out in the context of his hometown - Toronto - and he was only able to develop his unique rock/techno/vocals fusion sound because he had his feet in two scenes at once. He was thoroughly involved in bands, such as the electro and electro-acoustic flavoured, The Uncut and later he developed his interest in the techno scene and started doing solo live song and PA performances for techno club crowds. In the beginning, he was the only one in his local rock scene who was interested in techno sounds, and it was because of his passion for two different styles of music that he sought to bring out the similarities in the genres and fuse them. Says Fairley, "Techno is rock music. Anything made by young and untrained people in a somewhat pop format is rock n' roll. Rock is what describes the music that a generation is excited about that goes over their parent's heads." He wanted rock artists to respect the techno side so he sought to make quality tracks that were not cheesy and retained their element of rock flare. |
| Once Fairley had developed his techno fusion sound, he met up with Jeremy Caulfield and released his first techno tracks on Dumb-Unit. He also started working with techno heavies: Adam Marshall, also releasing on Marshall's Killer Recordings, and Pan/Tone. After successful releases on these respected Canadian labels he came out with two original full length CDs: Crisis, and Paper Stars. Today Fairley is on the respected Blue Bookings roster with international European techno DJs and his tracks are being distributed in Europe through Kompact. |
| Over the last year, Fairley toured Europe from his base of Cologne. Pan/Tone was also living in Cologne and working closely with Fairley. Pan/Tone remarks, "Jake is someone who I respect musically and as a friend. I had to work with him because this dude is going to be around for a long successful career. We played enough shows together to realize that our music is complementary, and we have similar directions. We both perform like techno is going out of style.....is it out of style finally!? Now we are off on a crazy USA/Japan tour for a month, and it will be a blow out!" In addition, Pan/Tone also works with Fritz le Chat who appeared to rap at the Toronto Fukhouse show and he has more plans for the future. Says Pan/Tone, "Two album projects: One on Bip_Hop (France) and the other is on Onitor Records, and both are coming out in March 2004. A few compilation projects, a couple of EP's on Sub-Static, one possible on Areal Records, Morris Audio, and much more love to come." |
| So, what of the perception that techno is a faceless and fameless genre, with DJs that have a less marketable image or persona? This, too, is changing. We saw this when Hawtin's iconic look changed and people were talking about him as a celebrity. It seemed that, in the beginning, techno could not support too many stars; as a genre it resisted the notion of extreme fame or mass popularity. However, this meant that techno retained its more underground edge, unlike other electronic genres, such as trance which, arguably, did not. For Fairley and Pan/Tone the performance aspect they bring to clubs also destabilizes the opposition of techno production work, where there may be recorded vocals, versus the club atmosphere, where there are rarely live vocals. Their performance styles make them unique as electronic musicians. Now the question is; will other DJs and live PA's include more of an interactional element with their crowds to challenge the stereotype of techno as the faceless and static genre? |
| DJs now more than ever are realizing that they are on stage with people not only listening but also watching them. Perhaps the higher expectations of savvy audiences will result in the creation of more exciting interfaces for DJs and live PAs, and new technologies. But the question remains, do techno enthusiasts consider the lack of popular attention on techno problematic, or is it the unexposed elitist elements that make techno appealing? In my opinion, it is new hybrid sounds, which are re-combinations of the older well-liked elements of techno with new techniques and genres, that will do well. With the infusion of new energy, perhaps techno events would gain the attention of new audiences, or perhaps the limits of techno will expand to include more avant-garde acts and visual DJs. Creative new Canadian artists such as Jake Fairley, Pan/Tone, and a host of others are necessary for a mass infiltration in the international techno industry. The future for Canadian techno talent looks promising. |
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| raise the bar for live techno performances in international tours |
| Torontonian techno artists: Jake Fairley and Pan Tone |
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| By: Amanda Connon-Unda Published in Klublife Magazine, March 2004. |