Even though Fortier is no longer invoved with the pool you can hear the limitless expanses of his tastes in the remixers he chose for these EPs in addition to the artists he presents on Fade and that’s what it takes to keep an ongoing series from tanking.
I can appreciate Chris Fortier’s focused vision of his artistic output and his sound is slowly catching on. Mostly what I hear is young bucks like Adultnapper pretty much stealing outright from the guy or European artists like Argy or Mark Knight doing essentially the same thing as Fortier to larger crowds and buying audiences.
Based on that, what I found most interesting in my conversation were Fortier, as an American artist (i.e. “the underdog”), his thoughts on the US market’s secondary nature in dance music despite our huge population.
Beyond the obvious thoughts of geographic and population sizes he touched on some variables that I had never considered like the lack of a nationally syndicated radio show reaching a huge audience such Pete Tong‘s Essential show in the UK as well as the lack of a signature club indicative of a sound or movement which every country in Europe already has and has for decades.
Whether electronic dance music in the US will ever be pop ready complete with a cheesy douchebag like Tong as spokesperson does see, unlikely at this time Fortier did point out that at one time New York superclub Twilo was a US club comparable with The End, Fabric, or DC10- capable of breaking new records and championing new movements.
Fortier believed that era in American dance music had passed and professed that he was no savior in terms of returning the US market to any sort of commercial viability saying the problem was too complex and filled with too many variables for any one person to solve. Besides the man has been trying hard to uncomplicate his life so he can focus more on his own releases and artistic output.
Well that’s it for now, I do hope to have a follow-up about the big strides the Fade imprint has been making with some daring releases in 2008 and will definitely have monthly reviews of the ongoing As Long remix series in my regular singles round-up series. Maybe I can coax a mix of some sort from the dude as well. I’ll keep you posted…
Chris Fortier: www.djchrisfortier.com/
EQ Records: www.residentadvisor.net/
Fade Records: www.faderecords.com/
*the first hour of the mix was broadcast on a German radio program that Fortier appeared on.
-Sean-Michael Yoder
Sean-Michael Yoder is a Chico, California-based music writer and tastemaker. Check out more at vinyljunkierecords.blogspot.com