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History of Techno

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Re: History of Techno

#81

Post by hnlmorg »

kristopolous wrote: post #42
3dee wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No music style appeared out of nowhere. So it will always be hard to pinpoint where things started. Maybe it is even impossible. I always have a mixed feeling about music style classifications. It shifts focus from the music to discussions about what style a piece of music is. Maybe techno originated from rhytmic tribe music. Who knows. Personally I don't care.

The classification limits the perception like the Himbu color experiment. That's why these early pre-language explorations are great. Luckily there's a lot of independent artists these days that are exploring things and refusing to label them with an abstract genre. We need our modern John Cages to feel empowered. I think it's important.

I was one of those independent artists and frankly it was sometimes a lot harder to get booked in the early to mid 00s because people started to identify themselves with those labels. The techno crowd were generally more open minded but outside of that things would often get ridiculously pigeon-holed.

Re: History of Techno

#82

Post by l33tbro »

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.

Re: History of Techno

#83

Post by p1necone »

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.

You know what annoys me 1000x more than elitism? People who are elitist about not being elitist.

This is just some guys opinions on music, let him talk about them, you don't have to agree.

Re: History of Techno

#84

Post by shermozle »

ahurmazda wrote: post #19
the-dude wrote: post #10

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

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…

He's, uh, not a fan of the Dutch.

Re: History of Techno

#85

Post by l33tbro »

kristopolous wrote: post #24
cpach wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity: What do you mean by New Wave in this context? When I hear new wave I think of acts such as Adam and the Ants and Duran Duran. But are they related to techno?

Yeah, absolutely. You're just a few steps away with a lot of Duran Duran (Rio era) and records like Night Move's Transdance arguably gets there. I mean heck, take Polices Synchronicity part 1, https://youtu.be/Si5CSpUCDGY . If someone told me that was how an album by underworld or say sasha started from 1999, I'd believe it, swap the vocals and the physical drums with some synths and it's basically done

I feel no-wave also might have been influential. ESG could easily be read as proto-techno in this context. 'Erase You' and 'Dance' have that same kind of reductionist, tribal sensibility.

Re: History of Techno

#86

Post by graderjs »

Krasnol wrote: post #4

I loved the Gray back than. It was just right for me and for the time back than. Something I realized at a "revival" party for it. Growing up and out of time sucks some times ;)

It was the late 90s. I was 16 or 17. I used to sneak out, literally out the window and over the roof, to the fence, and to the ground, after bed time and trek to the city, to go to "61 Regent St". An "underground" club in Sydney. Techno all night, strange new media generative video art projected on the walls, people with glow sticks, UV lights, dreadlocks. A "drinks counter" that also sold marijuana. Place was tiny, always filled with cigarette smoke. Sort of like a hippy culture vibe, but techno. Dumonde's Tomorrow. I was so tired one night I fell asleep under the pool table. Somehow sleeping even as the bass reverberated everything. Dancing until early, then if I wanted more, walk over to the slightly more hardcore "Icebox" in the Cross. Both places closed for many, many years.

Re: History of Techno

#87

Post by kristopolous »

l33tbro wrote: post #85
kristopolous wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, absolutely. You're just a few steps away with a lot of Duran Duran (Rio era) and records like Night Move's Transdance arguably gets there. I mean heck, take Polices Synchronicity part 1, https://youtu.be/Si5CSpUCDGY . If someone told me that was how an album by underworld or say sasha started from 1999, I'd believe it, swap the vocals and the physical drums with some synths and it's basically done

I feel no-wave also might have been influential. ESG could easily be read as proto-techno in this context. 'Erase You' and 'Dance' have that same kind of reductionist, tribal sensibility.

Their track "Moody (Spaced Out)" shares a strange similarity with Atmosfears "Dancing in Outer Space". I'm sure it's independent, it just made me think of it right away

Re: History of Techno

#89

Post by Dowwie »

1978 Kraftwerk live performance of 2 songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdubMwbOndo

Kraftwerk's first live recorded performance was in 1970: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWUiLJnEYJI

How many people in the 1970 audience sensed that they were listening to something as significant as what it became?

Re: History of Techno

#90

Post by dekoruotas »

Ariez wrote: post #49
tbronchain wrote: post #30

Techno finds its roots in tribal music. Its repetitive patterns allow deep self-reflection and strong connection to inner feelings. disclaimer: I love techno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx9GH6L7VwI This one has connected with me recently on that more tribal level!

HN. Your new definitive guide to Techno.

Good one!

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