Over the past ten years, four solo albums, numerous 12” singles and the odd collaboration, Canadian
skateboard kid turned roving techno troubadour Jake Fairley has carved out a successful career in the fuzzy
hinterland between the worlds of indie and dance, collecting up a loyal worldwide following of big-hearted club
misfits in the process. But growing up under the influence of the indie rock scene in his hometown of Toronto
in the slowly-gentrifying neighbourhood of Parkdale, the path to techno stardom was not always an obvious
one, and surrounded as he was by a decidedly rock-centric peer group Jake’s earliest dabblings with the
electronic side during the mid-nineties seemed destined to remain a private passion.

It was only when big fish in the small local techno pond Jeremy Caulfield chanced upon a prototypically
physical Jake Fairley live performance in a downtown bar that an electronic recording career became a
serious proposition, signing Jake up for the first release on to his fledgling Dumb-Unit label and forging a vital
link in the North American techno network in the process. A series of critically-acclaimed dubby techno
releases on Berlin's trailblazing minimal label Sender soon followed - amongst which lurked early touchstones
of the emergent minimal techno scene ‘Oshawa’, ‘CN Tower’ and ‘Exploder’ - leading on to his debut artist
album ‘Crisis’ in 2002. With this came international renown, top draw techno DJ endorsement, the Kompakt
Speicher-series seal of approval, and eventually the inevitable move to Berlin to facilitate the spread of his
sweaty, raw live performances throughout Europe’s burgeoning club scene. From decidedly mumbled
beginnings, the emerging vocal component of Jake’s live performances became increasingly aggressive in
the run up to 2004’s return to Dumb-Unit for the release of ‘Touch Not The Cat’, and the raucous no-wave
vocal live shows that accompanied this album of bolshy pants-off electro-rock could have given
T.Raumschmiere himself a run for his money.

The Fairmont strand of Jake’s recording career first emerged as an outlet for his more romantic leanings,
imbuing ten tracks of lovable bedroom electronica with a smattering of mumbled vocal outpourings for the
‘Paper Stars’ album, released by Cologne’s Traum Schallplatten back in 2002. But aside from a Pet Shop
Boys ‘Back To Mine’ compilation appearance the Fairmont following was to remain low-key and decidedly cult
until 2005, when the emergence of Jake’s debut release for’ the UK’s idiosyncratic Border Community label
was to dramatically transform the hitherto club-shy Fairmont project into a serious live concern. The
unassuming melodies of ‘Gazebo’ soon took on quite a life of their own, evolving into the sort of club monster
that causes crowds to fly into raptures at the merest hint of the opening refrain, and thereby unlocking an
unforeseen world of pop-dance possibility that would eventually find the sensitive Fairmont placed
incongruously centre-stage at the 2007 edition of the rave-tastic Love Parade in Essen.

As welcome as the global adoration that comes attached to a club monster like ‘Gazebo’ may be, eventually
the time comes for the multi-faceted three-dimensional artist to step out from behind the shadow of the
massive hit, a feat which Jake achieved with aplomb with the 2007 release of the ‘Coloured In Memory’
album on Border Community. Uniting the elasticated rhythms of his trademark driving analogue machine-funk
with intimate, hypnotic vocals, woozy, warm interludes and drugged-out highs, this warm and fuzzy Fairmont
installment showcased the true depth and variety of Jake’s talent: for this is melodic electronic music, but with
a soul-baring sensitive singer-songwriter edge. Shot through with subtle, if unexpected, nods to the grunge
era - from the insiduous Cobain-delivery of ‘Fade and Saturate’ to the stripped back guitars of ‘Time’s Fool’ -
‘Coloured In Memory’ also saw Jake edge back musically closer-than-ever to his old friends in the Toronto
indie rock scene, so it is no surprise that within this circle Jake would soon find a fruitful new collaboration.

When childhood friend and band man James Sayce found himself temporarily posted to the University of
Groningen in the Autumn of 2008, Jake also decided to adopt the grey Dutch town as his European touring
base, and during their collective downtime the pair would together assemble their eponymous Bishop
Morocco album, where poppy, soaring new wave hooks are fused with a love of drum machines and tape
hiss to produce a worthy addition to the chillwave cannon upon its 2010 release. This murky, atmospheric
production sensibility has also seeped into Fairmont’s recent solo work, as evidenced by the psych-goth of
the ‘3 Cities EP’ for Traum, and his forthcoming Border Community comeback, the epic ‘Velora EP’, whose
lush harmonic synthscapes and the moody vocal mantras competently straddle either side of the indie-
electronic fence.

In the time that has elapsed since the release of his last solo album Jake has given himself over
wholeheartedly to the nomadic lifestyle that is the inevitable lot of the North America electronic music
producer, flitting with the seasons between Toronto, Amsterdam and Berlin, hauling his surprisingly-compact
and thoroughly-charming all-hardware live show across the Atlantic to wedge his mumbled vocals and
burbling machines into the confines of the DJ booth - or spread them across the grandeur of a stage - as the
situation befits. Along the way he has managed to squeeze out a pair of Fairmont EP releases for Traum and
Areal, as well as coming together with fellow outsider (techno) artists and Berlin-best-friends Metope and
Pan/Tone to form the Beachcoma record label: an island of free expression within the vast ocean of Berlin’s
minimal monoculture that has so far hosted two Jake Fairley solo offerings (‘Evaporator EP’ & ‘Gremlins EP’).
From his current sunny base in Barcelona, Jake is now hard at work on his next Fairmont album missive,
where - judging by the earliest demos – a luscious, husky and hooky songwriting component looks set to
figure even more strongly than ever.