Morgan Geist Added by Heinos, 5 March 2005
"The man behind the bomb is a downplayed nearly austere public figure, Morgan Geist, the stalwart of overtly funky techno tracks either under his own name or along with Darshan Jesrani under the Metro Area moniker now a much appreciated staple of leftfield dance music.
Though today's most perceived filiation in cuts such as Tonky Pumpz or Let's Get is leftield disco and its prolongation on the garage scene - Larry Levan - and into eighties funk - Chemise -, Geist initially discovered electronic sounds through electro pop acts such as Devo, New Order or Depeche Mode along with indie pop - B52 - flavors collected by his sister.
In relative New Jersey isolation, he retraced the original techno artform first via its UK intelligent counterparts - B12 or The Black Dog - before moving upstream to discover Detroit's finests from Juan Atkins to Derrick May, moved to Ohio to study music and ultimately got acquianted there with Metamorphic founder Dan Curtin who gave him his first recording break with the release of the Quadra Locular EP.
Geist susbsequently broke to the European public with the release of The Driving Memoirs on the now defunct Clear imprint, former home of electro prophets such as Herbert, Kirk Degiorgio or Mike Paradinas.
Eager to be able to showcase different musical facets and possibly desillusioned by Clear's allegedly opaque management, Geist reinforced his commitment to his own Environ imprint founded in 1995. It took several years before the label's sound solidified around the talents of Daniel Wang, Darshan Jesrani and Geist himself and was given his first larger break by the success of the Metro Area series soon to be regrouped under a much anticipated full fledge LP. A darker -and perhaps closer to techno- side of the Environ signature is showcased on Phonography's Environ : Into a Separate Place.
After having overcome the classic hurdles faced by many American producers -isolation, lack of domestic recognition and struggling in a much less united scene than it is perceived to be from overseas- Morgan Geist is today one of electronic music's much touted producer and has finally gained a large enough leeway with his Environ imprint to release his most significant material in the years to come.
Performances
Wildvreemd, 14 March 2007
Sugar Factory, Amsterdam
Soulcialism, 24 May 2005
Mudia Gelände, Essen