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History of Techno

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Re: History of Techno

#251

Post by tomduncalf »

arrakeen wrote: post #249
tomduncalf wrote: post #237

Cool to see so much discussion about techno on here! I’ve been a huge dance music fan/nerd ever since I was a teenager and techno is my favourite genre, particularly the deeper and more hypnotic varieties. Check out Donato Dozzy’s 2008 Labyrinth set for an idea of what I mean, it blew my mind at the time (still does) and redefined my musical tastes quite a lot: https://soundcloud.com/user-602354628/sets/dozzy-labyrin…

i've been listening to dozzy's "plays bee mask" constantly for the last two weeks. really excellent ambient/synth/drone/whatever

Yep, wonderful album. Check out his album K for a slightly more upbeat but similarish vibe, and also the Voices from the Lake album.

Bee Mask’s albums are fantastic too. Have been getting really in to ambient lately

Re: History of Techno

#252

Post by [deleted] »

jamal-kumar wrote: post #214
mqp wrote: post #117

I'm pleased to see accuracy in the history of techno. I for one did not know it's roots took place back in the 70s and from the black community. These days when I look at techno artists and their raving followers, its prodimently white. I have since taken active steps to seek out the lesser know black artists to support. Many modern music fundamentals are origins from the black community and very little is correctly…

If you want to see quite the videos check these out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV8_eUJ6C1w [ Acid Mix Detroit Chicago - New Dance Show 1989 ] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz2wInkVkRU [ Techno Jam - New Dance Show 1989 ] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aUAqboAvQM [ City of Techno (Detroit) - New Dance Show 1991 ] Great examples of the racial diversity in the early scene in Detroit. I think this was some publ…

[deleted]

Re: History of Techno

#253

Post by layoutIfNeeded »

adriancooney wrote: post #36
mellavora wrote: post #25

Wonder how this stacks up to Toops's Oceans of Sound? this is the book cover: https://monoskop.org/images/9/9f/Toop_David_Ocean_of_Sound_A...

This looks great, thanks for posting. Have you another other books like this you'd recommend?

https://jointhefuture.net/book/

Join The Future: Bleep Techno and the Birth of British Bass Music

Re: History of Techno

#254

Post by jldl805 »

mmmmmk wrote: post #245
yowlingcat wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not holding onto laughably provincial notions of cosmogony > it is just strange to ... only make passing reference to its progenitors Which one is it? Electronic music didn't begin with Krautrock, it began with avant garde composers pushing limits. Messiaen, Ives, Varése, Cage; all of this in the late 19th century to early 20th century. Krautrock itself is deeply indebted to its own stylistic progenitors in Ame…

You're being a bit too clever. The term 'techno' is attributed to Kraftwerk who were hugely influential for all forms of electronic music after them. It is strange to only mention them briefly later on, and present it as the history of techno.

Maybe the "term" but the "genre" techno was really born in Detroit. Not a really controversial statement.

Re: History of Techno

#255

Post by randomopining »

tomduncalf wrote: post #250
randomopining wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeeeeeah dude. Anything in realm of Dozzy is awesome. Check out Wata Igarashi for a polished spacey sound. I also like the funky techno with detroit and hip hop vibes of the Zenker Brothers. Best techno party ever is No Way Back during Movement in Detroit. Most likely featuring one of the above. Of course I still like more semi-mainstream techno stuff, Ben Klock and Dettmann. And then even more mainstream, I love Pry…

Ah yeah big fan of Wata. His remix of Blachington Mill is one of my fave tracks for several years, his “infinite arpeggio” thing is so unique: https://open.spotify.com/track/5MsKTeSpd6Lehr899HOjdN?si=fu4... Also check this wicked set he did recently in Japan, amazing music and really nice visuals cut to Japanese nature: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tUva4XDGBm4 I’m in London so never had the chance to check out the U…

Yeahh that’s an insane track. Spiraling arpeggios into infinite, like you said.

Yeah that set is crazy. New track Cylinder into the crazy unreleased 303 one is madness.

How old is too old? I’ve had a reprieve because of covid and I wonder when I go back if I’ll like it as much as I did in 2019.

I’ve def matured in reducing excesses... And I think I’m less of a chin scratching techno elitist.

What spots or events are best in the UK?

Still want to make it to Labyrinth one day too.

Re: History of Techno

#256

Post by hnlmorg »

comprev wrote: post #236
hnlmorg wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drumcode is still going strong and Beyer does a weekly podcast, which is excellent (and supports RSS too). I still love that sound even though I'm now far too old to have the stamina to party like I did in the 90s/00s. IDM has also been a huge love of my life. I'm not sure I could pick a favourite out of techno or IDM though. But Drumcode Radio is certainly good music to run to. Slam did a rather nice podcast that sa…

Drumcode has become the EDM festival gateway to many people and has earned the nickname "business techno". Gently bobbing along at 125-128 with predictable buildups/breakdowns and is very "FX friendly" on the mixer.

Aside from the beat rate, what you've described there could equally apply to all genres of dance music. Almost every track follows the same rules phrasing and has a 4/4 time signature (often with really accented four-to-the-floor kicks or percussion). The predictable buildups and breakdowns are a feature: most people can't dance to something they can't follow. Just look at how differently people dance to IDM (it's not uncommon to see a mosh pit at some gigs). That said, even IDM has a good few tracks with a predictable phrasings to them too.

Sure, some genres are more predictable than others (hardhouse, for example, is effectively the "painting by numbers" equivalent of EDM) but as a retired DJ who used to mix on 3+ decks and throw in the odd non 4/4 track too (typically 3/4 but I had some more esoteric records too), I can't think of many tracks from many genres that were particularly hard to DJ.

...well there was this one track that was difficult, not because of the phrasing nor time signature, but because the producer decided to fade in the start of the track. Very unhelpful that!

What I've written here also applies to a significant amount of rock and it's various sub-genres too.

As for the "FX friendly on the mixer", that's been technos style since the 90s. It's nothing new and certainly not anything specific to Drumcode. Richie Hawtin even released a compilation album called "Decks, EFX & 909" in 1999 and his style is very different to Adam Beyer's. In the early 00s Misstress Barbara wrote in a cover sleeve on one of her mixes about how her sets were about creating new compositions live using 3 decks, heavy EQing and effects. Her style also differed massively from Drumcode.

Source: retired DJ and producer. Not a household name but played a few gigs in and around London. Mostly techno but with house, electro, breaks, EBM, rock, metal, industrial and pretty much anything else thrown in that had the right vibe to it.

Re: History of Techno

#257

Post by kristopolous »

tern wrote: post #28
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…

Histories of techno always leave out some of my favorites from the early 2000s Adam Beyer / Drumcode era of fast maximalist techno—Zenit records for instance https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPN0gicPJTTUJVhVMzCne... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOfuXwU6GoQ And I was surprised they mentioned Surgeon and Regis, but not their Downwards Records https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBilbhSIIhgKbRezA7RoO...

That whole movement was kinda self contained. Early 2000s Central Europe.

There's a party drug contribution that's really instrumental to these movements. I have been thinking of how to do a musical taxonomy by narcotic, but it's hard to do without making everyone sound like a junkie.

New Beat and MDMA, Disco and cocaine, freeform Jazz and heroine, etc. (I'm a big fan of all of these btw, and could likely make you want to "delete my number" talking about them. But pretending like Gino Soccio (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhAPoip5YeQ) or Tantra (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyqkePY6FKY) or the partiers listening were sober is personally, not very plausible. Sure, I'm sober, but I'm an outlier)

The big theory here is the genres that seem to compactly come and go in a few years, seem to have a high degree of self similarity in releases (take reggae or psytrance for example), and seem to be popular with the party kids might be heavily linked to a particular single or set of narcotics.

Take happy hardcore for example. Thousands of tracks, labels, artists, a huge culture and scene behind it, of well, to be honest, a bunch of teenagers on drugs. Take psychedelic rock and LSD.

Again, this is a really touchy subject but I kinda think drumcore is in that camp. It follows the same chronological and social patterns and seems to fall in the same circles.

I'm not a drug user but I've been to enough parties to know there's certainly a different prevalence in different circles. It's even more difficult because you know, it's all technically illegal so people aren't entirely forthcoming and people don't tend to leave great documentation of illegal substance use around for future historian study.

Maybe a cross comparison with police arrest reports would be as authoritative as we can get? Even that is tough though because in all the hundreds of underground raves I went to in my teens and twenties in california, police arresting people happened at I believe zero. So that sample size is extremely small.

And even then, everything usually gets consumed rather immediately and if they bust a dealer what they're finding are the unsold inventory so even that's not a good metric, the "empty shelves" are the important ones.

Re: History of Techno

#258

Post by tomduncalf »

randomopining wrote: post #255
tomduncalf wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yeah big fan of Wata. His remix of Blachington Mill is one of my fave tracks for several years, his “infinite arpeggio” thing is so unique: https://open.spotify.com/track/5MsKTeSpd6Lehr899HOjdN?si=fu4... Also check this wicked set he did recently in Japan, amazing music and really nice visuals cut to Japanese nature: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tUva4XDGBm4 I’m in London so never had the chance to check out the U…

Yeahh that’s an insane track. Spiraling arpeggios into infinite, like you said. Yeah that set is crazy. New track Cylinder into the crazy unreleased 303 one is madness. How old is too old? I’ve had a reprieve because of covid and I wonder when I go back if I’ll like it as much as I did in 2019. I’ve def matured in reducing excesses... And I think I’m less of a chin scratching techno elitist. What spots or events are…

I’m 36... still enjoy late nights but find it messes up my sleep for days after even if I am fairly sensible with alcohol etc., so I’m more selective about when I go out - has to be worthwhile! Day parties I’m down for (tho they have a way of turning into night parties lol)

In London, good venues are Corsica Studios, Pickle Factory, The Cause, Fold... all pretty low key and underground. There’s good stuff in other cities too but I’m not really familiar with it any more.

Yeah, Labyrinth is the dream!

Re: History of Techno

#259

Post by te_chris »

anthk wrote: post #205
dpeck wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can’t forget jazz there either. And I’d argue that blues and rock are separate, but that most rock until late 90s was heavily influenced by blues. But that’s all just fun trying to draw lines where there isn’t a clear difference sometimes.

Well, blues is the son of jazz music :) PD: I didn´t put Blues/Rock as separate entities, but two genres where late blues albums could be considered something as proto-rock. And ditto with jazz-swing-blues. It's like a continuum.

More like the father!

Re: History of Techno

#260

Post by bisRepetita »

Berlin in the 90s. That's what made it for me. Love Parade. E-Werk. Tresor. East-Berlin hidden bars. Tiergarten outdoor parties.

I went from "techno is boom boom music" to "mind-blown" in one week. Forever.

Thank you Detroit, thank you New York City, and huge thank you Berlin.

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