Laurent Garnier – 30

This is an album that plays the old school of Laurent Garnier,overall its an enjoyable album, with varied kinds of musics, dark, melodic, technofunk and ambiental tunes.My favourite tracks are: "For Max" and "Le voyage de simone" both musics are very melodic and melancholic. then the tracks wich i don´t enjoy at all are:"The Hoe" and "Flashback", these tracks have no melody, only beats and distressing sounds...still this is one of the few albums a enjoy by Laurent Garnier.

Laurent Garnier takes a more wider approach on his second album, resulting in a diverse array of tracks. "Deep Sea Diving" starts the record with some gentle ambient that reflects the title perfectly. "The Hoe" goes for minimal house, while "I Funk Up" grooves its way with some technofunk. There still is a decent amount of pure techno, such as "Crispy Bacon". It took me some time to understand what is so good about this track, since I'm not always a big fan of the rough side of Garnier. The building is excellent and when the track is at the climax, it still has some nice tricks to differentiate from the other predictable tracks in the genre. Unfortunately, "Flashback" is such a cut, being one of the very few skippers. "Kall It!" is a better track, throwing in some sparse synths over the easy rhythm and the dark bass (though the vocoder could have been left out). The best comes out of Garnier when he flirts with other styles. "For Max", for example, is an excellent abstract downtempo groove, especially when those twinkeling sounds make their appearance after three minutes. Another highlight is "Sweet Mellow D". A majestic melody line hypnotizes the listener and guides it through nearly ten minutes. The structure is perfect and the kick drum is hardly needed (be sure to check out the gorgeous live version on Youtube too). The jazzy "Feel the Fire" is also great: simple, happy and catchy. "Theme From Larry's Dub" veers to dub and incorporates some pretty flute riffs to add depth to the track. The impressive "Mid Summer Night" has an odd beat, but as the track progresses and more instruments and sounds are added, it gets more shape. And then "Le Voyage de Simone" closes the album in a blissful ambient style. Not every track is a success, but, as a whole, 30 is an excellent album.

Good album from Laurent Garnier. Not quite up there where his best work resides, but a solid effort nonetheless.
The thing with this guy is that, with the exception of "Unreasonable behaviour", his albums follow a hit 'n' miss philosophy. He displays such a versatile plethora of sounds and styles, that very few like the entire album but everybody loves certain parts of it. And "30" is not much of a difference. The classics like Crispy Bacon, Flashback and For Max are known globally, but what about the rest? It's far from filler let me tell you. Sweet Mellow D has a really, well, mellow melody and a very smooth drive, nicely developing through its nine minutes running time.
The Hoe has a funny old school sample and the whole track sounds kind of like one of those old hip house tracks by the Jungle Brothers, Kall It is yet another old school influenced tune worth mentioning. Neither one of these two is life altering, but it's sure quality music.
Theme From Larry's Dub is a great dubbish track, maybe a little on the monotonous side of things, but it's not too long, so you really can't complain too much. Feel The Fire is a superb, melodic, blast from the past house track, and quite a few people liked it when I played it for them.
These are just some tracks I felt needed a mention as they often get overlooked 'cause everybody's all over the most known tunes. Back to what I wrote above: it's not a classic, but maybe if more people payed attention to it, some new light will be shed over it. Essentially essential for LG fans!