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History of Techno

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Re: History of Techno

#161

Post by rchaud »

laumars wrote: post #113
tmearnest wrote: post #101

I've been listening to techno (not EDM in general, Techno) since the 90s. It's definitely my favorite music for deep work; something about the tight repetitive loops is just perfect for concentration. Since the pandemic started I've been listening to techno mixes almost constantly in order to mask the noise from everyone else in my house. Initially, I found it difficult to find decent mixes since Techno has become a…

Slam, Adam Beyer (Drumcode) and Chris Liebling (CLR) are all good places to start. They all have weekly radio stations. From there on you can follow an guest DJs who you like the style off. Also when did “techno” become an umbrella term again? I was possessed off enough when “EDM” was redefined as a specific genre (and such a lousy one at that).

> Also when did “techno” become an umbrella term again?

I would guess in the '90s, when there was a lot more crossover between electronic music and other genres. Rock and hiphop oriented stuff like the Prodigy and Chemical Brothers were topping the dance charts, and other more conventional techno like Aphex Twin and Underworld were getting decent media coverage as well.

Plus movie soundtracks at the time tended to include a lot of techno. Trainspotting, Pi, Hackers, The Jackal, The Saint....discovered a lot of artists thanks to these.

Re: History of Techno

#162

Post by you_know_the_ »

tmearnest wrote: post #101

I've been listening to techno (not EDM in general, Techno) since the 90s. It's definitely my favorite music for deep work; something about the tight repetitive loops is just perfect for concentration. Since the pandemic started I've been listening to techno mixes almost constantly in order to mask the noise from everyone else in my house. Initially, I found it difficult to find decent mixes since Techno has become a…

Cercle channel on YouTube puts out some great techno shows. They go to historical places and record a set with some of the best djs Here is the link for Pan-Pot set https://youtu.be/hENgrbIMiy4

Re: History of Techno

#163

Post by cmrdporcupine »

renaudg wrote: post #156
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That happened in Europe in the early 90s, in America in the early 2010s. Not my recollection, though? "Electronica" was a mainstream record store category and a huge market in the late 90s and early 2000s in North America long before this "EDM" label was applied later. I think, yes, that it fell out of fashion post 9-11 and so in the 10 year gap the EDM thing happened later. So we're really talking about a generati…

I'm not questioning the experience of North American music lovers and club-goers like yourself, I'm sure you could get your hands on that stuff. But take a look at the Wikipedia pages for the tracks and artists you mentioned, and see how high they went in the US vs European charts (to be fair, I was surprised that the Prodigy did so well in the US) My claim is that the degree to which a genre becomes mainstream in a…

Yeah I'm just saying it was far more mainstream than is intimated. "Charts" have always been a marketing tool, it's questionable to me from the 80s on how much they reflect what people were actually listening to.

The point is that mass consumption of dance music was a huge thing in North America.

I mean it's funny. In the early 90s I went to visit my extended family in Germany. At that point I was already a major techno fan, but the funny thing is that when I went to Europe all my cousins, the music they listened to was mostly American R&B and hip-hop. Watching overdubbed episodes of Family Matters. Huge consumers of a side of North American culture that I did not. So to me the demographic situation is more complicated.

I think many Europeans on this thread might have a biased perception of what music consumption in the 90s in North America looked like based more on North American exports than on what was actually happening here. That and most people here are quite young.

Re: History of Techno

#164

Post by rchaud »

tarsinge wrote: post #66
ahurmazda wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its easy to miss but descriptions of the different genres are the true mvp. Some of the saltiest things I have read, true hilarity. E.g `Eurotrance`: > "The rank repugnance of the self-fellating culture of DJ worship is at the forefront of this many-headed hydra of rapacious rot. Overbearing anthems, boring breakdowns, and tasteless DJ vanity have combined into one monstrous, obnoxious, pompous, unlistenable Babyloni…

These kind of rants have gone really old for me, like the person is stuck in 2009 at the golden age of Pitchfork/Vice/Hipster blogs... music elitism/criticism.

I wish some of those humorous rants still existed. Music criticism now is so staid and boring. There are more paragraphs dedicated to the author's navel-gazing about their personal circumstances, than what the damn record sounds like.

I even wish the elitism still existed. I used to go to Pitchfork, Coke Machine Glow and sites of that type to read about music that wasn't getting covered elsewhere. Now it's basically Rolling Stone, but worse because it pretends to be counter culture while devoting endless posts to TSwift or Drake or any number of artists that can be heard on every major radio station.

Re: History of Techno

#165

Post by evanelias »

kristopolous wrote: post #13

This is about as conventional a narrative as you can get. I've never been happy with it though, it's way too much of a tidy, linear, clean through-line. For instance, this narrative always leave out free-style and electro like Hashim (example: 1983, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykK0uEjSsqY ), Newcleus, etc. Soulsonic Force (1982: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHQ11l4uiM4 ) predated Atkins Cybotron project and At…

Great song picks. Absolutely agree. Hell, the article even largely omits the massive influence of house on techno in general, as most of these narratives seem to do.

As a result, many people seem to think techno preceded house. But taking the view that Juan Atkins' early 80s work was basically electro and not yet really "techno", it's pretty clear that house was already quite prevalent prior to techno becoming a distinct genre.

And even then, early 80s italo-disco was leagues ahead of house in terms of production quality... a few of my personal favorites:

Charlie - "Spacer Woman" (1983) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZDPCjEoIMI

Klapto - "Mister Game" (1983) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQUVg-HCjEE

Mr Flagio - "Take a Chance" (1983) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDV_dBYp4h0

Fun Fun - "Happy Station" (1983) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb5B1C5PFVo

Meanwhile on the house side we have debatable-first-house-record Jesse Saunders "On and On" (1984) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUeMFG4wjJw. Although my personal favorite under-appreciated proto-house pick would actually be from nyc, Boyd Jarvis "The Music Got Me" (1983) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYfG8tcEl3E.

These articles always mention "Shari Vari" since it's so early (1981) and influential (and still good!) but I always find it odd that they omit so many great tracks from the next few years.

Re: History of Techno

#166

Post by rchaud »

l33tbro wrote: post #82
kristopolous wrote: post #13

This is about as conventional a narrative as you can get. I've never been happy with it though, it's way too much of a tidy, linear, clean through-line. For instance, this narrative always leave out free-style and electro like Hashim (example: 1983, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykK0uEjSsqY ), Newcleus, etc. Soulsonic Force (1982: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHQ11l4uiM4 ) predated Atkins Cybotron project and At…

Agree. It's always such a 'just so' with these kinds of articles about Detroit techno. That being said, I think Kraftwerk is actually a little underrated in their influence. I know that probably seems hard to believe given the praise they got, but there was something about the spectre of 4 white robo-mannequins that triggered some latent afro-futurist impulse that, for me, goes back to Sun Ra and Alice Coltrane.

Daft Punk is the biggest electronic group in recent memory and wouldn't exist without Kraftwerk (and italo-disco).

Similarly, Underworld of "Born Slippy NUXX" fame in the '90s, are indebted to Kraftwerk (and Brian Eno) as well.

Re: History of Techno

#167

Post by yowlingcat »

the-dude wrote: post #10

Classic history tree of electronic music : http://music.ishkur.com/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26212706

Immediately did a Ctrl-F to see if Ishkur's guide had been mentioned on this thread and was not disappointed. As sassy as it is, the deep relational depth and exhaustive Ishkur put into making sense of the whole history of electronic music (and really the /whole/ history -- right back to its origins in musique concrete) made a really big impression on me as a teenager. It's probably a large part of what made me get a double major in music in college.

Re: History of Techno

#168

Post by evanelias »

wiz21c wrote: post #77
insickness wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They actually did mention Nitzer Ebb if you do a ctrl-F. Yes, very cool techno-ish, minimal seminal music. Ritchie Hawtin used to spin Murderous into his sets. Recently there was a cool documentary about Wax Trax records called Industrial Accident. Worth seeing. Interviews with Front 242, Ministry, Revolting Cocks, KMFDM, Thrill Kill Kult, Trent Reznor, Frontline Assembly, etc.

Any reference about that documentary ? The rev's, FLA, 242, all my not so youth :-)

Another vote for that documentary, it's absolutely a joy. Not streaming for free anywhere, but worth the cost: http://www.waxtraxfilms.com/

Re: History of Techno

#169

Post by spiralx »

tern wrote: post #23
andruby wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you happen to know if the old version of "Ishkur's guide to electronic music" is still available somewhere? IIRC it was a flash site with mostly music bubbles. It opened me up to fringe music genre's like Italo, Acid Jazz and Ghetto Tech.

I believe it's here, but of course you need Flash http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/ Another favorite is Ishkur's "trancecracker" comic, which you can find here: https://modwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=245900

Oh thanks, I remember laughing at that comic 15 years ago or so, back when I had "trance sucks" as an avatar on at least one dance music-related forum :)

The fact that it's originally a Jack Chick tract about how evil Muslims are makes it even better lol.

Re: History of Techno

#170

Post by yowlingcat »

rchaud wrote: post #164
tarsinge wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These kind of rants have gone really old for me, like the person is stuck in 2009 at the golden age of Pitchfork/Vice/Hipster blogs... music elitism/criticism.

I wish some of those humorous rants still existed. Music criticism now is so staid and boring. There are more paragraphs dedicated to the author's navel-gazing about their personal circumstances, than what the damn record sounds like. I even wish the elitism still existed. I used to go to Pitchfork, Coke Machine Glow and sites of that type to read about music that wasn't getting covered elsewhere. Now it's basically…

Don't get out your eulogies too prematurely -- let's not forget Anthony Fantano's meteoric rise in large part due to his Gordon Ramsay style critic rants! With that said, I do agree with your directional assessment, but I wonder if it's more due to economic and discovery forces (lower cost to production, discovery AND publication than ever before).

That is to say -- I've found that while the sheer volume of mass-produced crap has gone up (including but not limited to music criticism), so too has the sheer volume of rare, underground jewels. I don't know if/maybe doubt discovery has been cracked yet.

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