Happy Birthday, Red Faced Man! This month it was exactly ten years ago that Laurent Garnier first played his eternal classic "The Man With The Red Face". If I understood him correctly the story behind this track is as follows: when Laurent was first booked for the Montreux Jazz Festival on July 9th 1998 he reckoned that since he was performing at a Jazz Festival he should play something jazzy and hence wrote a track for it - with Philippe Nadaud doing the live saxophone. As the two worked on it and eventually got to the saxophone solo part Laurent started teasing Philippe - "Weak! This is shit!!" - more and more to the point where the saxophonist got so worked up that his face turned all red from playing the sax so ecstatically. Apparently that is how this record got its name. The track as such is clearly one of the biggest Dance classics out there - and that for a good reason. Not only does it combine elements of Jazz with such of Techno origin like no other, with its dynamics it also creates a very unique, emphatic atmosphere that could give almost any party that one special moment where everything just seems great. That bassline, those ride cymbals... simply wonderful. In fact I have seen "The Man With The Red Face" being performed live twice (both times at the Montreux Jazz Festival actually) and each time was a pretty memorable experience. Laurent (and the live musicians who usually accompany his live acts) likes to push the long build ups and endless breakdowns over countless minutes and to an extreme level that makes crowds go absolutely mental. I have never seen anything like it - and unfortunately Techno just doesn't do that anymore these days. What on earth happened in those ten years??

Can't believe I wrote that nonsense in my other comments about this track. That's what happens when you log on to Discogs after a night out. The remix is of course by Svek, and I'm warming to Funk D'Void's mix, although it still falls short of the original and the Svek mix.

What a track. My hope is that in the future they'll be encouraging our kids to listen to this in the schools. What a motivation. There are so many words that could be used to describe this track, however none would give it justice. You have to hear it, feel it, dance to it, ride with it !!!!!!!! On the flip UMEK rises to he challenge and delivers the house mix, retaining that phat bassline with the emphasis on the sax solo, yet never losing the integrity of the original take. Funk D'Void attempts to create the techno alter-ego by leaving his mark on the track utilising breaks, (that initially don't work, eventually make sense, then lose it again ....) underpinned by a sweeping bassline and his take on the original melody. Lars' mistake, in my opinion, is that he tries to make the track his own..............!!! Perhaps he should have rejected the opportunity to rework it in the first place. But then..... How could you?

Funnily enough, in about 2010 when I was at secondary school my English teacher recommended this to the whole class. A useful lesson!