Techno is a
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
of
electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally
produced for use in a continuous
DJ set
A DJ mix or DJ mixset is a sequence of musical tracks typically mixed together to appear as one continuous track. DJ mixes are usually performed using a DJ mixer and multiple sounds sources, such as turntables, CD players, digital audio players ...
, with
tempo
In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...
often varying between 120 and 150
beats per minute
Beat, beats or beating may refer to:
Common uses
* Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area
** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols
** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men
* Battery ( ...
(bpm). The central
rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...
is typically in
common time
The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...
(4/4) and often characterized by a repetitive
four on the floor
''Four on the Floor'' is a 1999 compilation album consisting of songs by bands on Panic Button Records. It features four tracks by four of the labels bands, Screeching Weasel, Moral Crux
A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is c ...
beat. Artists may use
electronic instrument
An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital audio signal that ultimately is plugged into ...
s such as
drum machines,
sequencers, and
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
s, as well as
digital audio workstations
A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for Sound recording and reproduction, recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software pro ...
. Drum machines from the 1980s such as
Roland's TR-808 and
TR-909
The Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer is a drum machine introduced by Roland Corporation in 1983, succeeding the TR-808. It was the first Roland drum machine to use samples for some sounds, and the first with MIDI functionality, allowing it to syn ...
are highly prized, and
software emulations of such
retro
Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from history, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. In popular culture, the "nostalgia cycle" is typically for the two decades that begin 20–30 ...
instruments are popular.
Much of the instrumentation in techno emphasizes the role of
rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...
over other musical parameters. Techno tracks mainly progress over manipulation of
timbral
In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musical ...
characteristics of
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
presets and, unlike forms of EDM that tend to be produced with synthesizer keyboards, techno does not always strictly adhere to the harmonic practice of Western music and such structures are often ignored in favor of timbral manipulation alone. Another distinguishing feature of techno music and techno aesthetic is the general embracement of creative use of
music production technology.
Use of the term "techno" to refer to a type of
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
originated in Germany in the early 1980s. In 1988, following the UK release of the compilation ''
Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit'', the term came to be associated with a form of EDM produced in Detroit.
[Brewster 2006:354][Reynolds 1999:71. ''Detroit's music had hitherto reached British ears as a subset of Chicago house; ]eil
Eil may refer to:
Places
* Eil (crater), on Mars
* Eil, Cologne, a quarter of Cologne, Germany
* Eil, Somalia
* Eil District, Somalia
* Loch Eil, a lake in Scotland
Other uses
* Eastern Independent League, an American high school sports conf ...
Rushton and the Belleville Three decided to fasten on the word techno – a term that had been bandied about but never stressed – in order to define Detroit techno as a distinct genre.'' Detroit techno
Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mil ...
resulted from the melding of
synth-pop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...
by artists such as
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...
,
Giorgio Moroder
Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer, songwriter, and record producer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering euro disco and electronic dance mu ...
and
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO for short) is a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, vocals). The group is conside ...
with
African American styles such as
house
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...
,
electro, and
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
.
Added to this is the influence of
futuristic
The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...
and
science-fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univers ...
themes relevant to life in American
late capitalist society, with
Alvin Toffler
Alvin Eugene Toffler (October 4, 1928 – June 27, 2016) was an American writer, futurist, and businessman known for his works discussing modern technologies, including the digital revolution and the communication revolution, with emphasis on th ...
's book ''
The Third Wave'' a notable point of reference. The music produced in the mid-to-late 1980s by
Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins (born September 12, 1962), also known as Model 500 and Infiniti, is an American record producer and DJ from Detroit, Michigan. ''Mixmag'' has described him as "the original pioneer of Detroit techno." He has been a member of The Belle ...
,
Derrick May, and
Kevin Saunderson
Kevin Maurice Saunderson (born September 5, 1964) is an American electronic dance music Dj and record producer. He is famous for being a member of a trio, along with Juan Atkins and Derrick May, who came to be known as The Belleville Three, w ...
(collectively known as
The Belleville Three
The Belleville Three are three American musicians, Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson, who are credited with inventing the Detroit techno genre.
Origins
Kevin Saunderson was born in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of nine he mov ...
), along with
Eddie Fowlkes
Eddie Fowlkes (born December 24, 1962) is an American techno DJ. He was influential to the early Detroit techno scene.
Biography
Eddie Fowlkes was born on December 24, 1962, in Detroit, Michigan. After attending a 1978 Charivari party with h ...
,
Blake Baxter
Blake Baxter (born 1963) is an American techno musician, associated with the first wave of Detroit techno. AllMusic called him "perhaps the most underrated figure" of the early Detroit techno scene.John Bush, Blake Baxterat AllMusic
Baxter was bo ...
,
James Pennington
James Pennington, also known as Suburban Knight, is a DJ and producer with ''Underground Resistance'' (UR), an independent record label based in Detroit, United States. Music by Pennington and other UR members was featured in the video game M ...
and others is viewed as the ''first wave'' of techno from Detroit.
After the success of house music in a number of European countries, techno grew in popularity in the UK, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
[. The show is called "Tanzhouse" hosted by a young Fred Kogel. It includes footage from Hamburg's "Front" with Boris Dlugosch, Kemal Kurum's "Opera House" and the "Prinzenbar".] In Europe regional variants quickly evolved and by the early 1990s techno subgenres such as
acid
In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...
,
hardcore
Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to:
Arts and media Film
* ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film
* ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott
* ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...
,
bleep
Bleep may refer to:
* Bleep sound, a noise, generally of a single tone, often generated by a machine
** Bleep censor, the replacement of offensive language (swear words) or personal details with a beep sound
** Bleep techno, a Yorkshire-born subg ...
,
ambient
Ambient or Ambiance or Ambience may refer to:
Music and sound
* Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgrounds
* Ambient music, a genre of music that puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere
* ''Ambient'' (album), by Moby
* ...
, and
dub techno
Dub techno is a subgenre of techno that combines the style with elements of dub music, including its sparse, delay-heavy production and prominent bass.
Characteristics and history
In the early 1990s, producers Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus ...
had developed. Music journalists and fans of techno are generally selective in their use of the term, so a clear distinction can be made between sometimes related but often qualitatively different styles, such as
tech house
Tech house is a subgenre of house music that combines stylistic features of techno with house. The term ''tech house'' developed as a shorthand record store name for a category of electronic dance music that combined musical aspects of techno ...
and
trance
Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...
.
Detroit techno
In exploring Detroit techno's origins writer
Kodwo Eshun
Kodwo Eshun (born 1967) is a British -Ghanaian writer, theorist and filmmaker. He is perhaps best known for his 1998 book ''More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction'' and his association with the art collective The Otolith Grou ...
maintains that "Kraftwerk are to techno what
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago b ...
is to the
Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
: the authentic, the origin, the real."
[Kodwo 1998:100] Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins (born September 12, 1962), also known as Model 500 and Infiniti, is an American record producer and DJ from Detroit, Michigan. ''Mixmag'' has described him as "the original pioneer of Detroit techno." He has been a member of The Belle ...
has acknowledged that he had an early enthusiasm for Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder, particularly Moroder's work with
Donna Summer
LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948May 17, 2012), known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the " Queen of Disco", while her mus ...
and the producer's own album ''E=MC
2.'' Atkins also mentions that "around 1980 I had a tape of nothing but Kraftwerk,
Telex
The telex network is a station-to-station switched network of teleprinters similar to a Public switched telephone network, telephone network, using telegraph-grade connecting circuits for two-way text-based messages. Telex was a major method of ...
,
Devo
Devo (, originally ) is an American rock band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic line-up consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs (Mark and Bob) and the Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with Alan Myers. The band had a ...
, Giorgio Moroder and
Gary Numan
Gary Anthony James Webb (born 8 March 1958), known professionally as Gary Numan, is an English musician. He entered the music industry as frontman of the new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two albums with the band, he released his d ...
, and I'd ride around in my car playing it."
[ Regarding his initial impression of Kraftwerk, Atkins notes that they were "clean and precise" relative to the "weird UFO sounds" featured in his seemingly "psychedelic" music.
Derrick May identified the influence of Kraftwerk and other European synthesizer music in commenting that "it was just classy and clean, and to us it was beautiful, like outer space. Living around Detroit, there was so little beauty... everything is an ugly mess in Detroit, and so we were attracted to this music. It, like, ignited our imagination!". May has commented that he considered his music a direct continuation of the European synthesizer tradition.][Brewster 2006:349] He also identified Japanese synthpop act Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO for short) is a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, vocals). The group is conside ...
, particularly member Ryuichi Sakamoto
is a Japanese composer, pianist, singer, record producer and actor who has pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto inf ...
, and British band Ultravox
Ultravox (earlier styled as Ultravox!) were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which was ...
, as influences, along with Kraftwerk. YMO's song " Technopolis" (1979), a tribute to Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
as an electronic mecca, is considered an "interesting contribution" to the development of Detroit techno, foreshadowing concepts that Atkins and Davis would later explore with Cybotron.
Kevin Saunderson has also acknowledged the influence of Europe but he claims to have been more inspired by the idea of making music with electronic equipment: "I was more infatuated with the idea that I can do this all myself."[
These early Detroit techno artists additionally employed ]science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
imagery to articulate their visions of a transformed society.
School days
Prior to achieving notoriety, Atkins, Saunderson, May, and Fowlkes shared common interests as budding musicians, "mix" tape traders, and aspiring DJs. They also found musical inspiration via the ''Midnight Funk Association
The Electrifying Mojo (born Charles Johnson in Little Rock, Arkansas) is an American radio personality. He is a disc jockey based in Detroit, Michigan whose on-air journey of musical and social development shaped a generation of music-lovers in D ...
,'' an eclectic five-hour late-night radio program hosted on various Detroit radio stations, including WCHB
WCHB (1340 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Royal Oak, Michigan, and serving the Detroit metropolitan area. It broadcasts an urban gospel radio format and is owned by Crawford Broadcasting. The station is a reporter to Billboa ...
, WGPR
WGPR (107.5 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station in Detroit, Michigan, broadcasting an urban contemporary radio format. Owned by the International Free and Accepted Modern Masons, its studios and offices are on East Jefferson Avenue on Detr ...
, and WJLB-FM from 1977 through the mid-1980s by DJ Charles "The Electrifying Mojo
The Electrifying Mojo (born Charles Johnson in Little Rock, Arkansas) is an American radio personality. He is a disc jockey based in Detroit, Michigan whose on-air journey of musical and social development shaped a generation of music-lovers in D ...
" Johnson. Mojo's show featured electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
by artists such as Giorgio Moroder, Kraftwerk, Yellow Magic Orchestra and Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese having been the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup ...
, alongside the funk sounds of acts such as Parliament Funkadelic
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
and dance oriented new wave music
New wave is a loosely defined music genre that encompasses pop-oriented styles from the late 1970s and the 1980s. It was originally used as a catch-all for the various styles of music that emerged after punk rock, including punk itself. La ...
by bands like Devo
Devo (, originally ) is an American rock band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic line-up consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs (Mark and Bob) and the Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with Alan Myers. The band had a ...
and the B-52's
The B-52's, also styled as The B-52s, are an American new wave band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1976. The original lineup consisted of Fred Schneider (vocals, percussion), Kate Pierson (vocals, keyboards, synth bass), Cindy Wilson (vocals, p ...
. Atkins has noted:
Despite the short-lived disco boom in Detroit, it had the effect of inspiring many individuals to take up mixing, Juan Atkins among them. Subsequently, Atkins taught May how to mix records, and in 1981, "Magic Juan", Derrick "Mayday", in conjunction with three other DJ's, one of whom was Eddie "Flashin" Fowlkes, launched themselves as a party crew called Deep Space Soundworks (also referred to as Deep Space). In 1980 or 1981 they met with Mojo and proposed that they provide mixes for his show, which they did end up doing the following year.[
During the late 1970s-early 1980s high school clubs such as Brats, Charivari, Ciabattino, Comrades, Gables, Hardwear, Rafael, Rumours, Snobs, and Weekends allowed the young promoters to develop and nurture a local dance music scene. As the local scene grew in popularity, DJs began to band together to market their mixing skills and ]sound systems
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
to clubs that were hoping to attract larger audiences. Local church activity centers, vacant warehouses, offices, and YMCA
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...
auditoriums were the early locations where the musical form was nurtured.
Juan Atkins
Of the four individuals responsible for establishing techno as a genre in its own right, Juan Atkins is widely cited as "The Originator". In 1995, the American music technology publication ''Keyboard Magazine
''Keyboard'' is a magazine that originally covered electronic keyboard instruments and keyboardists, though with the advent of computer-based recording and audio technology, they have added digital music technology to their regular coverage, inc ...
'' honored him as one of ''12 Who Count'' in the history of keyboard music.
In the early 1980s, Atkins began recording with musical partner Richard Davis (and later with a third member, Jon-5) as Cybotron. This trio released a number of rock and electro-inspired tunes, the most successful of which were '' Clear'' (1983) and its moodier followup, "Techno City" (1984).
Atkins used the term ''techno'' to describe Cybotron's music, taking inspiration from Futurist
Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abou ...
author Alvin Toffler, the original source for words such as ''cybotron'' and ''metroplex''. Atkins has described earlier synthesizer based acts like Kraftwerk as techno, although many would consider both Kraftwerk's and Juan's Cybotron outputs as electro. Atkins viewed Cybotron's ''Cosmic Cars'' (1982) as unique, Germanic, synthesized funk, but he later heard Afrika Bambaataa
Lance Taylor (born on April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (), is an American DJ, rapper, and producer from the South Bronx, New York. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenc ...
's " Planet Rock" (1982) and considered it to be a superior example of the music he envisioned. Inspired, he resolved to continue experimenting, and he encouraged Saunderson and May to do likewise.
Eventually, Atkins started producing his own music under the pseudonym Model 500, and in 1985 he established the record label Metroplex
A metroplex is a conurbation with more than one principal anchor city of near equal importance.
Metroplex may refer to:
* Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, a conurbation in Texas, U.S.
*Eastgate Metroplex, a professional/retail complex in Tulsa, O ...
. The same year saw an important turning point for the Detroit scene with the release of Model 500's "No UFO's
"No UFO's" is a 1985 techno song by Juan Atkins under the alias of Model 500. It was released on Atkins own label Metroplex. The song was the first track released after the split of Atkins' previous group Cybotron. The music followed similar them ...
," a seminal work that is generally considered the first techno production. Of this time, Atkins has said:
Chicago
The music's producers, especially May and Saunderson, admit to having been fascinated by the Chicago club scene and influenced by house in particular. May's 1987 hit "Strings of Life
"Strings of Life" is a 1987 song by American electronic musician Derrick May, in collaboration with Michael James, and released under the name Rhythim Is Rhythim. It is his most well-known song and considered a classic in both the house music a ...
" (released under the alias Rhythim Is Rhythim) is considered a classic in both the house and techno genres.[
Juan Atkins also believes that the first ]acid house
Acid house (also simply known as just "acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synthesiz ...
producers, seeking to distance house music from disco
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
, emulated the techno sound. Atkins also suggests that the Chicago house sound developed as a result of Frankie Knuckles
Francis Warren Nicholls, Jr. (January 18, 1955 – March 31, 2014), better known as Frankie Knuckles, was an American DJ, record producer and remixer. He played an important role in developing and popularizing house music in Chicago during the 1 ...
' using a drum machine he bought from Derrick May. He claims:
In the UK, a club following for house music grew steadily from 1985, with interest sustained by scenes in London, Manchester, Nottingham, and later Sheffield and Leeds. The DJs thought to be responsible for house's early UK success include Mike Pickering
Mike Pickering (born 21 February 1954) is an English musician and DJ.
Career
Pickering was a DJ at The Haçienda's Nude and Hot nights, and later Shine. He worked for Factory Records, where he signed Happy Mondays, To Hell with Burgundy and ...
, Mark Moore
Mark Moore (born 12 January 1965) is a British dance music record producer and DJ. He was founder of the dance / Sampling (music), sampling pioneers S'Express, and runs the London nightclubs, 'Electrogogo' and 'Can Can'.
Biography
Moore began ...
, Colin Faver
Colin Faver (24 December 1951 – 5 September 2015) was a British club and radio DJ, best known for his 1990s cutting-edge show on London's Kiss FM, and an important role in the development of British club culture.
Biography
Colin Faver was bor ...
, and Graeme Park
Graeme Park is an historic site and National Historic Landmark at 859 County Line Road in Horsham, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is owned by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and operated by the non-profit group, The Frien ...
.[Rietveld 1998:40–50]
Detroit sound
The early producers, enabled by the increasing affordability of sequencers and synthesizers, merged a European synthpop aesthetic with aspects of soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
, funk, disco
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
, and electro, pushing EDM into uncharted terrain. They deliberately rejected the Motown
Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...
legacy and traditional formulas of R&B and soul, and instead embraced technological experimentation.[Cosgrove 1988a. '' ays Juan Atkins, "Within the last 5 years or so, the Detroit underground has been experimenting with technology, stretching it rather than simply using it. As the price of sequencers and synthesizers has dropped, so the experimentation has become more intense. Basically, we're tired of hearing about being in love or falling out, tired of the R&B system, so a new progressive sound has emerged. We call it techno!"''][Cosgrove 1988a. ''Although the Detroit dance music has been casually lumped in with the jack virus of Chicago house, the young techno producers of the Seventh City claim to have their own sound, music that goes 'beyond the beat', creating a hybrid of post-punk, funkadelia and electro-disco...a mesmerizing underground of new dance which blends European industrial pop with black American garage funk...If the techno scene worships any gods, they are a pretty deranged deity, according to Derrick May. "The music is just like Detroit, a complete mistake. It's like George Clinton and Kraftwerk stuck in an elevator." ...And strange as it may seem, the techno scene looked to Europe, to Heaven 17, Depeche Mode and the Human League for its inspiration. ... ays an Underground Resistance-related group"Techno is all about simplicity. We don't want to compete with ]Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
James Samuel "Jimmy Jam" Harris III (born June 6, 1959) and Terry Steven Lewis (born November 24, 1956) are an American R&B/pop songwriting and record production team. They have enjoyed great success since the 1980s with various artists, most ...
. Modern R&B has too many rules: big snare sounds, big bass and even bigger studio bills." Techno is probably the first form of contemporary black music which categorically breaks with the old heritage of soul music. Unlike Chicago House, which has a lingering obsession with seventies Philly, and unlike New York Hip Hop with its deconstructive attack on James Brown's back catalogue, Detroit Techno refutes the past. It may have a special place for Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
and Pete Shelley
Pete Shelley (born Peter Campbell McNeish; 17 April 1955 – 6 December 2018) was an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. He formed early punk band Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto in 1976, and became the lead singer and guitarist in 1977 whe ...
, but it prefers tomorrow's technology to yesterday's heroes. Techno is a post-soul sound...For the young black underground in Detroit, emotion crumbles at the feet of technology. ...Despite Detroit's rich musical history, the young techno stars have little time for the golden era of Motown. Juan Atkins of Model 500 is convinced there is little to be gained from the motor-city legacy... "Say what you like about our music," says Blake Baxter, "but don't call us the new Motown...we're the second coming."''[Cosgrove 1988b. '' errick Maysees the music as post-soul and believes it marks a deliberate break with previous traditions of black American music. "The music is just like Detroit" he claims, "a complete mistake, it's like George Clinton and Kraftwerk are stuck in an elevator with only a sequencer to keep them company."'']
The resulting Detroit sound was interpreted by Derrick May and one journalist in 1988 as a "post-soul" sound with no debt to Motown
Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...
,[ but by another journalist a decade later as "soulful grooves" melding the beat-centric styles of Motown with the music technology of the time. May described the sound of techno as something that is "...like Detroit...a complete mistake. It's like George Clinton and Kraftwerk are stuck in an elevator with only a sequencer to keep them company."][ Juan Atkins has stated that it is "music that sounds like technology, and not technology that sounds like music, meaning that most of the music you listen to is made with technology, whether you know it or not. But with techno music, you know it."
One of the first Detroit productions to receive wider attention was Derrick May's "]Strings of Life
"Strings of Life" is a 1987 song by American electronic musician Derrick May, in collaboration with Michael James, and released under the name Rhythim Is Rhythim. It is his most well-known song and considered a classic in both the house music a ...
" (1987), which, together with May's previous release, "Nude Photo" (1987), helped raise techno's profile in Europe, especially the UK and Germany, during the 1987–1988 house music boom (see Second Summer of Love
The Second Summer of Love was a late 1980s social phenomenon in the United Kingdom which saw the rise of acid house music and unlicensed rave parties. Although primarily referring to the summer of 1988, it lasted into the summer of 1989, when e ...
). It became May's best known track, which, according to Frankie Knuckles, "just exploded. It was like something you can't imagine, the kind of power and energy people got off that record when it was first heard. Mike Dunn says he has no idea how people can accept a record that doesn't have a bassline."
Acid house
By 1988, house music had exploded in the UK, and acid house was increasingly popular. There was also a long-established warehouse party subculture
A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...
based around the sound system scene. In 1988, the music played at warehouse parties was predominantly house. That same year, the Balearic party vibe associated with Ibiza-based DJ Alfredo Fiorito was transported to London, when Danny Rampling
Danny Rampling (born 15 July 1961) is an English house music DJ and is widely credited as one of the original founders of the UK's rave/club scene.
His long career began in the early 1980s playing hip-hop, soul and funk around numerous bars an ...
and Paul Oakenfold
Paul Mark Oakenfold (born 30 August 1963), formerly known mononymously as Oakenfold, is an English record producer, remixer and trance DJ. He has provided over 100 remixes for over 100 artists including U2, Moby, Madonna, Britney Spears, Mass ...
opened the clubs Shoom and Spectrum, respectively. Both night spots quickly became synonymous with acid house, and it was during this period that the use of MDMA
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), commonly seen in Tablet (pharmacy), tablet form (ecstasy) and crystal form (molly or mandy), is a potent empathogen–entactogen with stimulant properties primarily used for Recreational dru ...
, as a party drug, started to gain prominence. Other important UK clubs at this time included Back to Basics in Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
, Sheffield's Leadmill and Music Factory, and in Manchester The Haçienda
The Haçienda was a nightclub and music venue in Manchester, North West England, which became famous during the Manchester years of the 1980s and early 1990s. It was run by the record label Factory Records.
The club opened in 1982, eventually ...
, where Mike Pickering and Graeme Park's Friday night spot, Nude, was an important proving ground for American underground
Underground most commonly refers to:
* Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth
Underground may also refer to:
Places
* The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston
* The Underground (S ...
dance music. Acid house party fever escalated in London and Manchester, and it quickly became a cultural phenomenon. MDMA-fueled club goers, faced with 2 A.M. closing hours, sought refuge in the warehouse party scene that ran all night. To escape the attention of the press and the authorities, this after-hours activity quickly went underground. Within a year, however, up to 10,000 people at a time were attending the first commercially organized mass parties, called ''raves'', and a media storm ensued.
The success of house and acid house paved the way for wider acceptance of the Detroit sound, and vice versa: techno was initially supported by a handful of house music clubs in Chicago, New York, and Northern England, with London clubs catching up later; but in 1987, it was "Strings of Life" which eased London club-goers into acceptance of house, according to DJ Mark Moore.
''The New Dance Sound of Detroit''
The mid-1988 UK release of ''Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit'',[Sicko 1999:98] an album compiled by ex- Northern Soul DJ and Kool Kat Records boss Neil Rushton (at the time an A&R scout for Virgin's "10 Records" imprint) and Derrick May, introduced of the word ''techno'' to UK audiences.[Brewster 2006:354][ Although the compilation put ''techno'' into the lexicon of music journalism in the UK, the music was initially viewed as Detroit's interpretation of Chicago house rather than as a separate genre.][ The compilation's working title had been ''The House Sound of Detroit'' until the addition of Atkins' song "Techno Music" prompted reconsideration.] Rushton was later quoted as saying he, Atkins, May, and Saunderson came up with the compilation's final name together, and that the Belleville Three voted down calling the music some kind of regional brand of house; they instead favored a term they were already using, ''techno''.[
Derrick May views this as one of his busiest times and recalls that it was a period where he
Commercially, the release did not fare as well and failed to recoup, but Inner City's production " Big Fun" (1988), a track that was almost not included on the compilation, became a ]crossover
Crossover may refer to:
Entertainment
Albums and songs
* ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album)
* ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987
* ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album)
* ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album)
* ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...
hit in fall 1988. The record was also responsible for bringing industry attention to May, Atkins and Saunderson, which led to discussions with ZTT
ZTT Records is a British record label founded in 1983 by record producer Trevor Horn, Horn's wife and businesswoman Jill Sinclair, and ''New Musical Express'' (NME) journalist Paul Morley. The label's name was also stylised as ZANG TUMB TUUM and ...
records about forming a techno supergroup Supergroup or super group may refer to:
* Supergroup (music), a music group formed by artists who are already notable or respected in their fields
* Supergroup (physics), a generalization of groups, used in the study of supersymmetry
* Supergroup ...
called ''Intellex.'' But, when the group were on the verge of finalising their contract, May allegedly refused to agree to Top of the Pops
''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show ...
appearances and negotiations collapsed. According to May, ZTT label boss Trevor Horn
Trevor Charles Horn (born 15 July 1949) is an English music producer, label and recording studio owner, musician and composer. He is best known for his production work in the 1980s, and for being one half of the new wave band The Buggles (wit ...
had envisaged that the trio would be marketed as a "black Petshop Boys."
Despite Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...
' disappointment with the poor sales of Rushton's compilation, the record was successful in establishing an identity for techno and was instrumental in creating a platform in Europe for both the music and its producers. Ultimately, the release served to distinguish the Detroit sound from Chicago house and other forms of underground dance music that were emerging during the rave era of the late 1980s and early 1990s, a period during which techno became more adventurous and distinct.[Sicko 1999:95–120]
Music Institute
In mid-1988, developments in the Detroit scene led to the opening of a nightclub called the Music Institute (MI), located at 1315 Broadway in downtown Detroit. The venue was secured by George Baker and Alton Miller with Darryl Wynn and Derrick May participating as Friday night DJs, and Baker and Chez Damier playing to a mostly gay crowd on Saturday nights.
The club closed on 24 November 1989, with Derrick May playing "Strings of Life" along with a recording of clock tower bells.[Sicko 1999:92–94] May explains:
Though short-lived, MI was known internationally for its all-night sets, its sparse white rooms, and its juice bar stocked with "smart drinks
Smart drinks, also known as nootropic drinks, are beverages made from a mix of fruit juices, vitamins, herbal supplements, and a variety of amino acid supplements.
History
The consumption of smart drinks and "smart drugs" began in the early 19 ...
" (the Institute never served liquor). The MI, notes Dan Sicko, along with Detroit's early techno pioneers, "helped give life to one of the city's important musical subcultures – one that was slowly growing into an international scene."[
]
German techno
In 1982, while working at Frankfurt's City Music record store, DJ Talla 2XLC started to use the term ''techno'' to categorize artists such as New Order, Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting).
Depeche ...
, Kraftwerk, Heaven 17
Heaven 17 are an English new wave and synth-pop band that formed in Sheffield in 1980. The band were a trio for most of their career, composed of Martyn Ware (keyboards) and Ian Craig Marsh (keyboards) (both previously of the Human League), an ...
and Front 242
Front 242 is a Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. Pioneering the style they called electronic body music, they are a profound influence on the electronic and industrial music genres.
History Formation
Fr ...
, with the word used as shorthand for technologically created dance music. Talla's categorization became a point of reference for other DJs, including Sven Väth
Sven Väth (born 26 October 1964) is a German DJ and electronic music producer. He is a three-time DJ Awards winner, and his career in electronic music spans over 30 years. The single "Electrica Salsa" with OFF launched his career in 1986. Referr ...
. Talla further popularized the term in Germany when he founded Technoclub at Frankfurt's No Name Club in 1984, which later moved to the Dorian Gray
''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is a philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical '' Lippincott's Monthly Magazine''.''The Picture of Dorian G ...
club in 1987. Talla's club spot served as the hub for the regional EBM and electronic music scene, and according to Jürgen Laarmann, of Frontpage
Front Page or The Front Page may also refer to:
Periodicals
* ''Frontpage'' (techno magazine), a German magazine for electronic music
* ''FrontPage Africa'', a Liberian daily newspaper
* '' FrontPage Magazine'', an online political magazine so ...
magazine, it had historical merit in being the first club in Germany to play almost exclusively EDM.
Frankfurt tape scene
Inspired by Talla's music selection, in the early 80s several young artists from Frankfurt started to experiment on cassette tapes with electronic music coming from the City Music record store, mixing the latest catalogue with additional electronic sounds and pitched BPM. This became known as the Frankfurt tape scene.
The Frankfurt tape scene evolved around the early and experimental work done by the likes of Tobias Freund, Uwe Schmidt
Uwe H. Schmidt (born 27 August 1968), also known as Atom™, Atom Heart, or Señor Coconut, is a German composer, musician and producer of electronic music. He is often regarded as the father of electrolatino, electrogospel, and aciton musi ...
, Lars Müller and Martin Schopf. Some of the work done by Andreas Tomalla, Markus Nikolai and Thomas Franzmann evolved in collaborative work under the Bigod 20
Bigod 20 was a German EBM/techno band which was formed in 1988 by music producers Andreas Tomalla (a.k.a. Talla 2XLC and formerly of the band Moskwa TV) and Markus Nikolai (a.k.a. Jallokin). Nikolai, together with Thomas Franzmann, run the Berli ...
collective. While this early work was strongly characterized as experimental electronic music fused with strong EBM, krautrock
Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...
, synthpop and technopop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...
influences, the later work during the mid and late 80's clearly transitioned to a clear techno sound.
Influence of Chicago and Detroit
By 1987 a German party scene based around the Chicago sound was well established. In the late 1980s, acid house also established itself in West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
as a new trend in clubs and discotheques. In 1988, the ''Ufo
An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...
'' opened in West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
, an illegal venue for acid house parties, which existed until 1990.[Robb, D. (2002), Techno in Germany: Its Musical Origins and Cultural Relevance, ''German as a Foreign Language Journal'', No.2, 2002, (p. 132–135).] In Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
at this time, the ''Negerhalle'' (1983–1989) and the ''ETA-Halle'' established themselves as the first acid house clubs in temporarily used, dilapidated industrial halls, marking the beginning of the so-called "hall culture" in Germany.
In July 1989 Dr. Motte
Doctor is an Academic degree, academic title that originates from the Latin word of the same spelling and meaning. The word is originally an Agent noun, agentive noun of the Latin verb 'to teach'. It has been used as an academic title in Europ ...
and Danielle de Picciotto
Danielle de Picciotto is an American-born artist, musician and filmmaker. She was born in Tacoma, Washington, USA,. She currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. In 1989 she founded, along with her partner Dr. Motte, the first Berlin Love Par ...
organized the first Love Parade
The Love Parade (german: Loveparade) was a popular electronic dance music festival and technoparade that originated in 1989 in West Berlin, Germany. It was held annually in Berlin from 1989 to 2003 and in 2006, then from 2007 to 2010 in the Ru ...
in West Berlin, just a few months before the Fall of the Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall (german: Mauerfall) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain and one of the series of eve ...
.
Growth of German scene
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 and the German reunification
German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
in October 1990, free underground techno parties mushroomed in East Berlin
East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...
.[ East German DJ ]Paul van Dyk
Matthias Paul (; born 16 December 1971), known professionally as Paul van Dyk () is a German DJ, record producer and musician. One of the first true renowned DJs, van Dyk was the first artist to receive a Grammy Award nomination in the newly a ...
has remarked that techno was a major force in reestablishing social connections between East and West Germany during the unification period. In the now reunified Berlin, several locations opened near the foundations of the Berlin Wall in the former eastern part of the city from 1991 onwards: the '' Tresor'' (est. 1991), the ''Planet'' (1991–1993), the ''Bunker
A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. ...
'' (1992–1996), and the '' E-Werk'' (1993–1997).[Brewster 2006:361] It was in Tresor at this time that a trend in paramilitary clothing was established (amongst the techno fraternity) by DJ Tanith; possibly as an expression of a commitment to the underground aesthetic of the music, or perhaps influenced by UR's paramilitary posturing. In the same period, German DJs began intensifying the speed and abrasiveness of the sound, as an acid infused techno began transmuting into hardcore
Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to:
Arts and media Film
* ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film
* ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott
* ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...
. DJ Tanith commented at the time that "Berlin was always hardcore, hardcore hippie
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
, hardcore punk, and now we have a very hardcore house sound."[ This emerging sound is thought to have been influenced by Dutch ]gabber
Gabber (; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of hardcore techno, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as Hardcore, which is characterised by fast beats, distorted & heavier kickdrums, ...
and Belgian hardcore; styles that were in their own perverse way paying homage to Underground Resistance
Underground Resistance (commonly abbreviated to UR) are an American musical collective from Detroit, Michigan. Producing primarily Detroit techno since 1990 with a grungy four-track musical aesthetic, they are also renowned for their militant p ...
and Richie Hawtin's Plus 8 Records. Other influences on the development of this style were European electronic body music
Electronic body music (acronymized to EBM) is a genre of electronic music that combines elements of industrial music and synth-punk with elements of disco and dance music. It developed in the early 1980s in Western Europe as an outgrowth of bo ...
(EBM) groups of the mid-1980s such as DAF
Daf ( fa, دف) also known as Dâyere and Riq is a Middle Eastern (mainly Iranian) frame drum musical instrument, used in popular and classical music in South and Central Asia. It is also used in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbe ...
, Front 242
Front 242 is a Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. Pioneering the style they called electronic body music, they are a profound influence on the electronic and industrial music genres.
History Formation
Fr ...
, and Nitzer Ebb
Nitzer Ebb () are a British EBM group formed in 1982 by Essex school friends Vaughan "Bon" Harris (programming, synthesizers, drums, vocals), Douglas McCarthy (vocals), and David Gooday (drums).
History
Initial releases (1983–1987)
The g ...
.
Changes were also taking place in Frankfurt during the same period but it did not share the egalitarian approach found in the Berlin party scene. It was instead very much centered around discothèques and existing arrangements with various club owners. In 1988, after the ''Omen
An omen (also called ''portent'') is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change. It was commonly believed in ancient times, and still believed by some today, that omens bring divine messages fr ...
'' opened, the Frankfurt dance music scene was allegedly dominated by the club's management and they made it difficult for other promoters to get a start. By the early 1990s Sven Väth
Sven Väth (born 26 October 1964) is a German DJ and electronic music producer. He is a three-time DJ Awards winner, and his career in electronic music spans over 30 years. The single "Electrica Salsa" with OFF launched his career in 1986. Referr ...
had become perhaps the first DJ in Germany to be worshipped like a rock star. He performed center stage with his fans facing him, and as co-owner of Omen, he is believed to have been the first techno DJ to run his own club.[Sextro, M. & Wick H. (2008), ''We Call It Techno!'', Sense Music & Media, Berlin, DE.] One of the few real alternatives then was The Bruckenkopf in Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...
, underneath a Rhine bridge, a venue that offered a non-commercial alternative to Frankfurt's discothèque
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
-based clubs. Other notable underground parties were those run by Force Inc. Music Works and Ata & Heiko from Playhouse records ( Ongaku Musik). By 1992 DJ Dag
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile D ...
& Torsten Fenslau
Torsten Fenslau (23 April 1964 — 6 November 1993) was a German disc jockey and music producer, and can be characterized as an important pioneer in the early Sound of Frankfurt.
Career
From 1982 to 1993, Fenslau served as a DJ at the nightclub D ...
were running a Sunday morning session at Dorian Gray
''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is a philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical '' Lippincott's Monthly Magazine''.''The Picture of Dorian G ...
, a plush discothèque near the Frankfurt airport
Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...
. They initially played a mix of different styles including Belgian new beat
New beat is a Belgian electronic dance music genre that fuses elements of new wave, hi-NRG,Simon Reynolds: ''Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture.'' Routledge 1999, , p. 124. EBM and hip hop (e.g. scratching).Timo ...
, Deep House
Deep house is a subgenre of house music that originated in the 1980s, initially fusing elements of Chicago house with the lush chords of 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. Its origins are attributed to the early recordings of Larry Heard ( ...
, Chicago House, and synthpop such as Kraftwerk and Yello and it was out of this blend of styles that the Frankfurt trance scene is believed to have emerged.
In 1990, the '' Babalu Club'', the first afterhours techno club in Germany, opened in Munich and was a place for the formation of the southern German techno scene, where protagonists such as DJ Hell
Helmut Josef Geier (born 6 September 1962), known professionally as DJ Hell, is a German DJ.
Biography
1970s and 1980s
DJ Hell described his musical beginnings in an interview with '' The European'', telling them “I was socialized with ...
, Monika Kruse
Monika Kruse (born 23 July 1971) is a German techno DJ/producer and record label owner, with a career in electronic music spanning more than 25 years. She played an influential role in the early Munich rave scene during the early 1990s and was amo ...
, Tom Novy
Tom Novy (born Thomas Reichold) is a DJ and producer from Munich, Germany.
Biography
Tom Novy lived in Munich in his youth and attended the Luitpold Gymnasium in Munich. In the mid-1980s he started to DJ and got his first residency at the ...
or Woody came together.
In 1993-94 rave became a mainstream music phenomenon in Germany, seeing with it a return to "melody, New Age elements, insistently kitsch harmonies and timbres". This undermining of the German underground sound lead to the consolidation of a German "rave establishment," spearheaded by the party organisation ''Mayday
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications.
It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiza ...
'', with its record label Low Spirit, WestBam, Marusha
Marusha Aphrodite Gleiß (born 18 November 1966), known by her stage name Marusha, is a German-Greek electronic music disc jockey, producer and television presenter who had hits in the mid-1990s including her 1994 single " Somewhere Over the Rainbo ...
, and a music channel called VIVA
Viva may refer to:
Companies and organisations
* Viva (network operator), a Dominican mobile network operator
* Viva Air, a Spanish airline taken over by flag carrier Iberia
* Viva Air Dominicana
* VIVA Bahrain, a telecommunication company
* ...
. At this time the German popular music charts were riddled with Low Spirit "pop-Tekno" German folk music reinterpretations of tunes such as "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and "Tears Don't Lie", many of which became hits. At the same time, in Frankfurt, a supposed alternative was a music characterized by Simon Reynolds as "moribund, middlebrow Electro-Trance music, as represented by Frankfurt's own Sven Väth and his Harthouse
Harthouse is a German record label specializing in techno music.
The company was founded by Sven Väth in the early 1990s as a sublabel of Eye Q Records with the divisions Harthouse Frankfurt, Harthouse UK and Harthouse America.
In the beginni ...
label." Illegal raves, however, regained importance in the German techno scene as a countermovement to the commercial mass raves in the mid-1990s.
Tekkno versus techno
In Germany, fans started to refer to the harder techno sound emerging in the early 1990s as '' Tekkno'' (or ''Brett'').[ This alternative spelling, with varying numbers of ''k''s, began as a tongue-in-cheek attempt to emphasize the music's hardness, but by the mid-1990s it came to be associated with a controversial point of view that the music was and perhaps always had been wholly separate from Detroit's ''techno'', deriving instead from a 1980s EBM-oriented club scene cultivated in part by DJ/musician Talla 2XLC in Frankfurt.][Sicko 2010:118–120]
At some point tension over "who defines techno" arose between scenes in Frankfurt and Berlin. DJ Tanith has expressed that Techno as a term already existed in Germany but was to a large extent undefined. Dimitri Hegemann
Dietmar-Maria "Dimitri" Hegemann (born August 26, 1954) is a German nightclub owner, cultural activist and community organizer, currently living and working in Berlin, Germany.
Early life and career
Dimitri Hegemann was born in Werl of Westfalia ...
has stated that the Frankfurt definition of techno associated with Talla's Technoclub differed from that used in Berlin. Frankfurt's Armin Johnert viewed techno as having its roots in acts such DAF, Cabaret Voltaire, and Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
, but a younger generation of club goers had a perception of the older EBM and Industrial
Industrial may refer to:
Industry
* Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry
* Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems
* Industrial city, a city dominate ...
as handed down and outdated. The Berlin scene offered an alternative and many began embracing an imported sound that was being referred to as ''Techno-House.'' The move away from EBM had started in Berlin when acid house became popular, thanks to Monika Dietl's radio show on SFB 4. Tanith distinguished acid-based dance music from the earlier approaches, whether it be DAF or Nitzer Ebb, because the latter was aggressive, he felt that it epitomized "being against something," but of acid house he said, "it's electronic, it's fun it's nice." By Spring 1990, Tanith, along with Wolle XDP, an East-Berlin party organizer responsible for the X-tasy Dance Project, were organizing the first large scale rave events in Germany. This development would lead to a permanent move away from the sound associated with Techno-House and toward a hard edged mix of music that came to define Tanith and Wolle's Tekknozid parties. According to Wolle it was an "out and out rejection of disco values," instead they created a "sound storm" and encouraged a form of "dance floor socialism," where the DJ was not placed in the middle and you "lose yourself in light and sound."
Developments
As the techno sound evolved in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it also diverged to such an extent that a wide spectrum of stylistically distinct music was being referred to as techno. This ranged from relatively pop oriented acts such as Moby
Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...
to the distinctly anti-commercial sentiments of Underground Resistance
Underground Resistance (commonly abbreviated to UR) are an American musical collective from Detroit, Michigan. Producing primarily Detroit techno since 1990 with a grungy four-track musical aesthetic, they are also renowned for their militant p ...
. Derrick May's experimentation on works such as ''Beyond the Dance'' (1989) and ''The Beginning'' (1990) were credited with taking techno "in dozens of new directions at once and having the kind of expansive impact John Coltrane had on Jazz".[Sicko 1999:80] The Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
-based label Network Records
Network Records (formed out of Kool Kat Records) was an independent record label founded in Birmingham, England, in 1988 by Neil Rushton and Dave Barker.
It was instrumental in first introducing Detroit techno to a British audience, through it ...
label was instrumental in introducing Detroit techno to British audiences. By the early 1990s, the original techno sound had garnered a large underground following in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, the Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
and Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
. The growth of techno's popularity in Europe between 1988 and 1992 was largely due to the emergence of the rave
A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...
scene and a thriving club culture.[
]
American exodus
In the United States during the early 90s, apart from regional scenes in Detroit, New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, Chicago and Orlando, interest in techno was limited. Many Detroit based producers, frustrated by the lack of opportunity in the US, looked to Europe for a future livelihood. This first wave of Detroit expatriates was soon joined by a so-called "second wave" that included Carl Craig, Octave One
Octave One is a group of American techno musicians composed of siblings Lenny Burden and Lawrence Burden, sometimes associated with their three other brothers, Lorne Burden, Lynell Burden and Lance Burden. In 1989, The band debuted on Derrick May ...
, Jay Denham, Kenny Larkin
Kenny Larkin (who also releases as Dark Comedy) is an American techno producer from Detroit. He has been described by AllMusic as "massively influential" on American, British, and German techno.
Larkin was born in 1968 and raised in Detroit, but ...
, Stacey Pullen
Stacey Pullen is an American techno musician based in Detroit, Michigan, United States.
Pullen was raised in Detroit, where he became interested in electronic music early in his life. He began working on the Detroit techno scene in 1990, studying ...
, and UR's Jeff Mills
Jeff Mills (born June 18, 1963, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American DJ, record producer, and composer. Thanks to his technical abilities as a DJ, Mills became known as ''The Wizard'' in the early to mid 1980s. In the late 1980s Mills founded ...
, Mike Banks, and Robert Hood
Robert Hood (born 1965 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American electronic music producer and DJ. He is a founding member of the group Underground Resistance as a 'Minister of Information' with Mad Mike Banks and Jeff Mills. He is often conside ...
. In the same period, close to Detroit (Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the souther ...
), Richie Hawtin
Richard "Richie" Hawtin (born June 4, 1970) is a British-Canadian electronic musician and DJ. He became involved with Detroit techno's second wave in the early 1990s, and has been a leading exponent of minimal techno since the mid-1990s. He becam ...
, with business partner John Acquaviva
John Acquaviva (born 1963) is an Italian Canadian DJ, producer, artist, and musical entrepreneur.
Music career
Acquaviva began his career in Detroit where he performed under the name of J'acquaviva+8. He met fellow DJ Richie Hawtin at The Shelter ...
, launched the techno imprint Plus 8
Plus 8 (also spelled as Plus8) is a Canadian techno record label, based in Windsor, Ontario. Along with Underground Resistance and Planet E, Plus 8 was one of the early producers of Detroit Techno's 'Second Wave' music at the start of the 1990s ...
Records. A number of New York producers also made an impression in Europe at this time, most notably Frankie Bones
Frankie Bones (real name Frank Mitchell; born 1966) is an American disc jockey and house and techno music producer from Brooklyn, New York City. He is considered to be the "Godfather of American rave culture" , Lenny Dee, and Joey Beltram
Joey Beltram (born 6 September 1971) is an American DJ and music producer, best known for his pioneering singles "Energy Flash" and "Mentasm" and for remixing Human Resource (band), Human Resource's "Dominator (Human Resource song), Dominator".
...
.
These developments in American-produced techno between 1990 and 1992 fueled the expansion and eventual divergence of techno in Europe, particularly in Germany.[Sicko 1999:161–184][Reynolds 2006:228–229] In Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, the club Tresor which had opened in 1991 for a time was the standard bearer for techno and played host to many of the leading Detroit producers, some of whom had relocated to Berlin. The club brought new life to the careers of Detroit artists such as Santonio Echols, Eddie Fowlkes and Blake Baxter, who played there alongside established Berlin DJs such as Dr. Motte and Tanith. According to Dan Sicko, "Germany's growing scene in the early 1990s was the beginning of techno's decentralization", and "techno began to create its second logical center in Berlin". At this time, the now reunified Berlin also began to regain its position as the musical capital of Germany.
Although eclipsed by Germany, Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
was another focus of second-wave techno in this time period. The Ghent
Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...
-based label R&S Records
R&S Records is an independent record label founded in 1983 in Ghent, Belgium. R&S represents the initials of Renaat Vandepapeliere and Sabine Maes, the couple that created the label. R&S Records has had several subsidiaries, most notably Apollo Re ...
embraced harder-edged techno by "teenage prodigies" like Beltram and C.J. Bolland
Christian Jay "C. J." Bolland (born 18 June 1971, Stockton-on-Tees, England) is an English-Belgian electronic music producer and remixer with British roots.
Born in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, Bolland's family moved to Antwerp in Fland ...
, releasing "tough, metallic tracks...with harsh, discordant synth lines that sounded like distressed Hoovers," according to one music journalist.
In the United Kingdom, Sub Club
The Sub Club is a club and music venue located at 22 Jamaica Street in Glasgow, Scotland. It opened 1 April 1987 and is the longest running underground dance club in the world. The basement space can legally hold up to 410 people. In 2008 it w ...
which opened in Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
in 1987, and Trade
Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market.
An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...
which opened its doors to London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
ers in 1990, were venues which helped bring techno into the country. Trade has been referred to as the 'original all night bender'.
''A Techno Alliance''
In 1993, the German techno label Tresor Records
Tresor (German for safe or vault) is an underground techno nightclub in Berlin and a record label.
History
The club was founded in March 1991 in the vaults of the former department store Wertheim at Leipziger Strasse 126-128 in Mitte, the ...
released the compilation album ''Tresor II: Berlin & Detroit – A Techno Alliance'', a testament to the influence of the Detroit sound upon the German techno scene and a celebration of a "mutual admiration pact" between the two cities.[ As the mid-1990s approached, Berlin was becoming a haven for Detroit producers; ]Jeff Mills
Jeff Mills (born June 18, 1963, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American DJ, record producer, and composer. Thanks to his technical abilities as a DJ, Mills became known as ''The Wizard'' in the early to mid 1980s. In the late 1980s Mills founded ...
and Blake Baxter
Blake Baxter (born 1963) is an American techno musician, associated with the first wave of Detroit techno. AllMusic called him "perhaps the most underrated figure" of the early Detroit techno scene.John Bush, Blake Baxterat AllMusic
Baxter was bo ...
even resided there for a time. In the same period, with the assistance of Tresor, Underground Resistance released their X-101/X-102/X103 album series, Juan Atkins collaborated with 3MB's Thomas Fehlmann
Thomas Fehlmann (born 1957) is a Swiss composer/producer who lives in Berlin, Germany, and has been active in electronic music since the 1980s. He is currently active on the Kompakt record label based in Germany. Fehlmann is an on-and-off member ...
and Moritz Von Oswald
Moritz von Oswald (born 1962) is a German record producer and percussionist from Hamburg and based in Berlin. He is a co-founder of the production duo and record label Basic Channel. He has collaborated with Juan Atkins, Carl Craig, and Nils Pett ...
[ and Tresor-affiliated label ]Basic Channel
Basic Channel is a German music duo and record label, composed of Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus, that originated in Berlin in 1993. The duo have also worked under other names, including Rhythm & Sound and Maurizio, and have founded offshoot ...
had its releases mastered
Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via meth ...
by Detroit's National Sound Corporation, the main mastering house for the entire Detroit dance music scene. In a sense, popular electronic music had come full circle, returning to Germany, home of a primary influence on the EDM of the 1980s: Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
's Kraftwerk. The dance sounds of Chicago and Detroit also had another German connection, as it was in Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
that Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte first produced the synthesizer-generated Eurodisco
Eurodisco (also spelled as Euro disco) is the variety of European forms of electronic dance music that evolved from disco in the late 1970s, incorporating elements of pop and rock into a disco-like continuous dance atmosphere. Many Eurodisco ...
sound, including the seminal four-on-the-floor track ''I Feel Love
"I Feel Love" is a song by American singer and songwriter Donna Summer. Produced and co-written by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, it was recorded for Summer's fifth studio album, ''I Remember Yesterday'' (1977). The album concept was to have ...
''.[
]
Minimal techno
As techno continued to transmute a number of Detroit producers began to question the trajectory the music was taking. One response came in the form of so-called minimal techno (a term producer Daniel Bell (musician), Daniel Bell found difficult to accept, finding the term ''minimalism'', in the artistic sense of the word, too "arty"). It is thought that Robert Hood
Robert Hood (born 1965 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American electronic music producer and DJ. He is a founding member of the group Underground Resistance as a 'Minister of Information' with Mad Mike Banks and Jeff Mills. He is often conside ...
, a Detroit-based producer and one time member of UR, is largely responsible for ushering in the minimal strain of techno. Hood describes the situation in the early 1990s as one where techno had become too rave, "ravey", with increasing tempos, the emergence of gabber
Gabber (; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of hardcore techno, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as Hardcore, which is characterised by fast beats, distorted & heavier kickdrums, ...
, and related trends straying far from the social commentary and soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
-infused sound of original Detroit techno. In response, Hood and others sought to emphasize a single element of the Detroit aesthetic, interpreting techno with "a basic stripped down, raw sound. Just drums, basslines and funky grooves and only what's essential. Only what is essential to make people move". Hood explains:
Jazz influences
Some techno has also been influenced by or directly infused with elements of jazz. This led to increased sophistication in the use of both rhythm and harmony in a number of techno productions. Manchester (UK)-based techno act 808 State helped fuel this development with tracks such as "Pacific State (song), Pacific State" and "Cobra Bora" in 1989. Detroit producer Mike Banks was heavily influenced by jazz, as demonstrated on the influential Underground Resistance
Underground Resistance (commonly abbreviated to UR) are an American musical collective from Detroit, Michigan. Producing primarily Detroit techno since 1990 with a grungy four-track musical aesthetic, they are also renowned for their militant p ...
release ''Nation 2 Nation'' (1991).[Kodwo 1998:127] By 1993, Detroit acts such as Model 500 and UR had made explicit references to the genre, with the tracks "Jazz Is The Teacher" (1993)[ and "Hi-Tech Jazz" (1993), the latter being part of a larger body of work and group called Galaxy 2 Galaxy, a self-described jazz project based on Kraftwerk's "man machine" doctrine.][ This lead was followed by a number of techno producers in the UK who were influenced by both jazz and UR, Dave Angel's "Seas of Tranquility" EP (1994) being a case in point, Other notable artists who set about expanding upon the structure of "classic techno" include Dan Curtin, Morgan Geist, Titonton Duvante and Ian O'Brien.
]
Intelligent techno
In 1991 UK music journalist Matthew Collin wrote that "Europe may have the scene and the energy, but it's America which supplies the ideological direction...if Belgian techno gives us riffs, German techno the noise, British techno the breakbeats, then Detroit supplies the sheer cerebral depth." By 1992 a number of European producers and labels began to associate rave culture with the corruption and commercialization of the original techno ideal. Following this the notion of an ''intelligent'' or Detroit inspired ''pure techno'' aesthetic began to take hold. Detroit techno had maintained its integrity throughout the rave era and was pushing a new generation of so-called ''intelligent techno'' producers forward. Simon Reynolds suggests that this progression "involved a full-scale retreat from the most radically posthuman and hedonistically functional aspects of rave music toward more traditional ideas about creativity, namely the auteur theory of the solitary genius who humanizes technology."
The term ''intelligent techno'' was used to differentiate more sophisticated versions of underground techno from rave-oriented styles such as breakbeat hardcore, Schranz, Netherlands, Dutch Gabber. Warp Records was among the first to capitalize upon this development with the release of the compilation album ''Artificial Intelligence (compilation album), Artificial Intelligence'' Of this time, Warp founder and managing director Steve Beckett said
Warp had originally marketed ''Artificial Intelligence'' using the description ''electronic listening music'' but this was quickly replaced by ''intelligent techno''. In the same period (1992–93) other names were also bandied about such as armchair techno, ambient techno, and electronica, but all referred to an emerging form of ''post-rave'' dance music for the "sedentary and stay at home". Following the commercial success of the compilation in the United States, ''Intelligent Dance Music'' eventually became the name most commonly used for much of the experimental dance music emerging during the mid-to-late 1990s.
Although it is primarily Warp that has been credited with ushering the commercial growth of IDM and electronica, in the early 1990s there were many notable labels associated with the initial ''intelligence'' trend that received little, if any, wider attention. Amongst others they include: Black Dog Productions (1989), Carl Craig's Planet E (1991), Kirk Degiorgio's Applied Rhythmic Technology (1991), Eevo Lute Muzique (1991), General Production Recordings (1991), In 1993, a number of new "intelligent techno"/"electronica" record labels emerged, including New Electronica, Mille Plateaux (record label), Mille Plateaux, 100% Pure (1993) and Ferox Records (1993).
Free techno
In the early 1990s a post-rave, DIY ethic, DIY, free party scene had established itself in the UK. It was largely based around an alliance between warehouse party goers from various urban Squatting, squat scenes and politically inspired new age travellers. The new agers offered a readymade network of countryside festivals that were hastily adopted by squatters and ravers alike. Prominent among the Sound reinforcement system, sound systems operating at this time were Exodus in Luton, Tonka in Brighton, Smokescreen in Sheffield, The DiY Sound System, DiY in Nottingham, Bedlam, Circus Warp, LSDiesel and London's Spiral Tribe. The high point of this free party period came in May 1992 when with less than 24 hours notice and little publicity more than 35,000 gathered at the Castlemorton Common Festival for 5 days of partying.[St. John 2001:100–101]
This one event was largely responsible for the introduction in 1994 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, Criminal Justice and Public Order Act; effectively leaving the British free party scene for dead. Following this many of the traveller artists moved away from Britain to Europe, the US, Goa in India, Koh Phangan in Thailand and Australia, Australia's East Coast.[ In the rest of Europe, due in some part to the inspiration of traveling sound systems from the UK,][ rave enjoyed a prolonged existence as it continued to expand across the continental Europe, continent.]
Spiral Tribe, Bedlam and other English sound systems took their cooperative techno ideas to Europe, particularly Eastern Europe where it was cheaper to live, and audiences were quick to appropriate the free party ideology. It was European Teknival free parties, such as the annual Czechtek event in the Czech Republic that gave rise to several French, German and Dutch sound systems. Many of these groups found audiences easily and were often centered around squats in cities such as Amsterdam and Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
.[
]
Divergence
By 1994 there were a number of techno producers in the UK and Europe building on the Detroit sound, but a number of other underground dance music styles were by then vying for attention. Some drew upon the Detroit techno aesthetic, while others fused components of preceding dance music forms. This led to the appearance (in the UK initially) of inventive new music that sounded far-removed from techno. For instance oldschool jungle, jungle (drum and bass) demonstrated influences ranging from hip hop music, hip hop, soul, and reggae to techno and house.
With an increasing diversification (and commercialization) of dance music, the collectivist sentiment prominent in the early rave
A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...
scene diminished, each new faction having its own particular attitude and vision of how dance music (or in certain cases, non-dance music) should evolve. According to ''Muzik'' magazine, by 1995 the UK techno scene was in decline and dedicated club nights were dwindling. The music had become "too hard, too fast, too male, too drug-oriented, too anally retentive." Despite this, weekly night at clubs such as Final Frontier (London),The Orbit (leeds), House of God (Birmingham sound, Birmingham), Pure (Edinburgh, whose resident DJ Twitch later founded the more eclectic Optimo), and Bugged Out (Manchester) were still popular. With techno reaching a state of "creative palsy," and with a disproportionate number of underground dance music enthusiasts more interested in the sounds of rave and jungle, in 1995 the future of the UK techno scene looked uncertain as the market for "pure techno" waned. ''Muzik'' described the sound of UK techno at this time as "dutiful grovelling at the altar of American techno with a total unwillingness to compromise."
By the end of the 1990s, a number of post-techno underground styles had emerged, including ghettotech (a style that combines some of the aesthetics of techno with Hip-hop music, hip-hop and house music), nortec, glitch (music), glitch, digital hardcore, electroclash and so-called ''no-beat techno''.
In attempting to sum up the changes since the heyday of Detroit techno, Derrick May has since revised his famous quote in stating that "Kraftwerk got off on the third floor and now George Clinton's got Napalm Death in there with him. The elevator's stalled between the pharmacy and the athletic wear store."
Commercial exposure
While techno and its derivatives only occasionally produce commercially successful mainstream acts—Underworld (band), Underworld and Orbital (band), Orbital being two better-known examples—the genre has significantly affected many other areas of music. In an effort to appear relevant, many established artists, for example Madonna (entertainer), Madonna and U2, have dabbled with dance music, yet such endeavors have rarely evidenced a genuine understanding or appreciation of techno's origins with the former proclaiming in January 1996 that "Techno=Death".
The R&B artist, Missy Elliott, exposed the popular music audience to the Detroit techno sound when she featured material from Cybotron's ''Clear'' on her 2006 release "Lose Control"; this resulted in Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins (born September 12, 1962), also known as Model 500 and Infiniti, is an American record producer and DJ from Detroit, Michigan. ''Mixmag'' has described him as "the original pioneer of Detroit techno." He has been a member of The Belle ...
' receiving a Grammy Award nomination for his writing credit. Elliott's 2001 album ''Miss E... So Addictive'' also clearly demonstrated the influence of techno inspired club culture.
In the late 90s the publication of relatively accurate histories by authors Simon Reynolds (''Generation Ecstasy'', also known as ''Energy Flash'') and Dan Sicko (''Techno Rebels''), plus mainstream press coverage of the Detroit Electronic Music Festival in the 2000s, helped diffuse some of the genre's more dubious mythology. Even the Detroit-based company Ford Motors eventually became savvy to the mass appeal of techno, noting that "this music was created partly by the pounding clangor of the Motor City's auto factories. It became natural for us to incorporate Detroit techno into our commercials after we discovered that young people are embracing techno." With a marketing campaign targeting under-35s, Ford used "Detroit Techno" as a print ad slogan and chose Model 500's "No UFO's" to underpin its November 2000 MTV television advertisement for the Ford Focus (North America), Ford Focus.
Antecedents
Early use of the term 'Techno'
In 1977, Steve Fairnie and Bev Sage formed an electronica band called the Techno Twins in London, England. When Kraftwerk first toured Japan, their music was described as "technopop" by the Japanese press. The Japanese band Yellow Magic Orchestra used the word 'techno' in a number of their works such as the song "Technopolis" (1979), the album ''Technodelic'' (1981), and a rare flexi disc EP, "The Spirit of Techno" (1983). When Yellow Magic Orchestra toured the United States in 1980, they described their own music as technopop, and were written up in Rolling Stone Magazine. Around 1980, the members of YMO added synthesizer backing tracks to idol songs such as Ikue Sakakibara's "Robot", and these songs were classified as 'techno kayou' or 'bubblegum techno.' In 1985, Billboard (magazine), Billboard reviewed the Canadian band Skinny Puppy's album, and described the genre as ''techno dance''. Juan Atkins himself said "In fact, there were a lot of electronic musicians around when Cybotron started, and I think maybe half of them referred to their music as 'techno.' However, the public really wasn't ready for it until about '85 or '86. It just so happened that Detroit was there when people really got into it."
Proto-techno
The popularity of Euro disco and Italo disco—referred to as ''progressive'' in Detroit—and new romantic synthpop in the Detroit high school party scene from which techno emerged has prompted a number of commentators to try to redefine the origins of techno by incorporating musical precursors to the Detroit sound as part of a wider historical survey of the genre's development.[Reynolds 1999:190] The search for a mythical "first techno record" leads such commentators to consider music from long before the 1988 naming of the genre. Aside from the artists whose music was popular in the Detroit high school scene ("progressive" disco acts such as Giorgio Moroder, Alexander Robotnick, and Claudio Simonetti and synthpop artists such as Visage (band), Visage, New Order, Depeche Mode, The Human League, and Heaven 17
Heaven 17 are an English new wave and synth-pop band that formed in Sheffield in 1980. The band were a trio for most of their career, composed of Martyn Ware (keyboards) and Ian Craig Marsh (keyboards) (both previously of the Human League), an ...
), they point to examples such as "Sharevari" (1981) by A Number of Names, danceable selections from Kraftwerk (1977–83), the earliest compositions by Cybotron (1981), Moroder's "From Here to Eternity" (1977), and Manuel Göttsching's "proto-techno masterpiece" ''E2-E4'' (1981). The song ''I Feel Love
"I Feel Love" is a song by American singer and songwriter Donna Summer. Produced and co-written by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, it was recorded for Summer's fifth studio album, ''I Remember Yesterday'' (1977). The album concept was to have ...
'', produced by Giorgio Moroder for Donna Summer in 1976, has been described as a milestone and blueprint for EDM because it was the first to combine repetitive synthesizer loops with a continuous Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor bass drum and an Beat (music)#On-beat and off-beat, off-beat hi-hat, which would become a main feature of techno and house ten years later. Another example is a record entitled ''Love in C minor'', released in 1976 by Parisian Euro disco producer Jean-Marc Cerrone; cited as the first so called "conceptual disco" production and the record from which house, techno, and other underground dance music styles flowed. Yet another example is Yellow Magic Orchestra's work which has been described as "proto-techno"
Around 1983, Sheffield band Cabaret Voltaire began including funk and EDM elements into their sound, and in later years, would come to be described as techno. Nitzer Ebb
Nitzer Ebb () are a British EBM group formed in 1982 by Essex school friends Vaughan "Bon" Harris (programming, synthesizers, drums, vocals), Douglas McCarthy (vocals), and David Gooday (drums).
History
Initial releases (1983–1987)
The g ...
was an Essex band formed in 1982, which also showed funk and EDM influence on their sound around this time. The Danish band Laid Back released "White Horse (Laid Back song), White Horse" in 1983 with a similar funky electronica sound.
Prehistory
Certain electro-disco
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
and European synthpop productions share with techno a dependence on machine-generated dance rhythms, but such comparisons are not without contention. Efforts to regress further into the past, in search of earlier antecedents, entails a further regression, to the sequenced electronic music of Raymond Scott, whose "The Rhythm Modulator," "The Bass-Line Generator," and "IBM Probe" are considered early examples of techno-like music. In a review of Scott's Manhattan Research Inc. (Raymond Scott album), Manhattan Research Inc. compilation album the England, English newspaper The Independent suggested that "Scott's importance lies mainly in his realization of the rhythmic possibilities of electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
, which laid the foundation for all electro-pop from disco to techno." In 2008, a tape from the mid-to-late 1960s by the original composer of the Doctor Who theme Delia Derbyshire, was found to contain music that sounded remarkably like contemporary EDM. Commenting on the tape, Paul Hartnoll, of the dance group Orbital (band), Orbital, described the example as "quite amazing," noting that it sounded not unlike something that "could be coming out next week on Warp Records."
Music production practice
Stylistic considerations
In general, techno is very disc jockey, DJ-friendly, being mainly instrumental (commercial varieties being an exception) and is produced with the intention of its being heard in the context of a continuous DJ mix, DJ set, wherein the DJ progresses from one record to the next via a synchronized segue or "mix." Much of the instrumentation (music), instrumentation in techno emphasizes the role of rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...
over other musical parameters, but the design of synthesizer, synthetic timbres, and the creative use of music production technology in general, are important aspects of the overall aesthetics of music, aesthetic practice.
Unlike other forms of EDM that tend to be produced with Keyboard instrument, synthesizer keyboards, techno does not always strictly adhere to the harmony, harmonic practice of Classical music, Western music and such strictures are often ignored in favor of timbral manipulation alone. The use of motif (music), motivic development (though relatively limited) and the employment of conventional musical frameworks is more widely found in commercial techno styles, for example Eurodance, euro-trance, where the template is often an Thirty-two-bar form, AABA song structure.
The main drum part is almost universally in common time
The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...
(4/4); meaning 4 quarter note pulse (music), pulses per bar. In its simplest form, time is marked with kicks (bass drum beats) on each quarter-note pulse, a snare drum, snare or clap on the second and fourth pulse of the bar, with an open Hi-hat (instrument), hi-hat sound every second eighth note. This is essentially a drum pattern popularized by disco
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
(or even polka) and is common throughout house and trance music as well. The tempo
In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...
tends to vary between approximately 120 beats per minute, bpm (quarter note equals 120 pulses per minute) and 150 bpm, depending on the style of techno.
Some of the drum machine, drum programming employed in the original Detroit-based techno made use of syncopation and polyrhythm, yet in many cases the basic disco-type pattern was used as a foundation, with polyrhythmic elaborations added using other drum machine voices. This syncopated-feel (funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
iness) distinguishes the Detroit strain of techno from other variants. It is a feature that many DJs and producers still use to differentiate their music from commercial forms of techno, the majority of which tend to be devoid of syncopation. Derrick May has summed up the sound as 'Hi-tech Tribalism': something "very spiritual, very bass oriented, and very drum oriented, very percussive. The original techno music was very hi-tech with a very percussive feel... it was extremely, extremely Tribal. It feels like you're in some sort of hi-tech village."[
]
Compositional techniques
There are many ways to create techno, but the majority will depend upon the use of loop-based Music sequencer, step sequencing as a compositional method. Techno musicians, or ''record producer, producers'', rather than employing traditional Musical composition, compositional techniques, may work in an Musical improvisation, improvisatory fashion, often treating the electronic music studio as one large instrument. The collection of devices found in a typical studio will include units that are capable of producing many different sounds and effects. Studio production equipment is generally Synchronization, synchronized using a hardware- or computer-based MIDI sequencer, enabling the producer to combine in one arrangement the sequenced output of many devices. A typical approach to using this type of technology compositionally is to overdubbing, overdub successive layers of material while continuously looping a single bar (music), measure or sequence of measures. This process will usually continue until a suitable Multitrack recording, multi-track arrangement has been produced.
Once a single loop-based arrangement has been generated, a producer may then focus on developing how the summing of the overdubbed parts will unfold in time, and what the final structure of the piece will be. Some producers achieve this by adding or removing layers of material at appropriate points in the mix. Quite often, this is achieved by physically manipulating a mixing console, mixer, sequencer, effects, dynamic range compression, dynamic processing, Equalization (audio), equalization, and audio filter, filtering while recording to a multi-track device. Other producers achieve similar results by using the automation features of computer-based digital audio workstations. Techno can consist of little more than cleverly programmed rhythmic sequences and looped motifs combined with Digital signal processing, signal processing of one variety or another, frequency audio filter, filtering being a commonly used process. A more idiosyncratic approach to production is evident in the music of artists such as Twerk and Autechre, where aspects of algorithmic composition are employed in the generation of material.
Retro technology
Instruments used by the original techno producers based in Detroit, many of which are highly sought after on the retro music technology market, include classic drum machines like the Roland TR-808 and TR-909
The Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer is a drum machine introduced by Roland Corporation in 1983, succeeding the TR-808. It was the first Roland drum machine to use samples for some sounds, and the first with MIDI functionality, allowing it to syn ...
, devices such as the Roland TB-303 bass line generator, and synthesizers such as the Roland SH-101, Kawai KC10, Yamaha DX7, and Yamaha DX100 (as heard on Derrick May's seminal 1987 techno release ''Nude Photo''). Much of the early music sequencing was executed via MIDI (but neither the TR-808 nor the TB-303 had MIDI, only DIN sync) using hardware sequencers such as the Korg SQD1 and Roland MC-50, and the limited amount of sampling (music), sampling that was featured in this early style was accomplished using an Akai S900.
By the mid-1990s TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines had already achieved legendary status, a fact reflected in the prices sought for used devices. During the 1980s, the 808 became the staple beat machine in Hip hop music, Hip hop production while the 909 found its home in House music and techno. It was "the pioneers of Detroit techno [who] were making the 909 the rhythmic basis of their sound, and setting the stage for the rise of Roland's vintage Rhythm Composer." In November 1995 the UK music technology magazine ''Sound on Sound'' noted:
By May 1996, ''Sound on Sound'' was reporting that the popularity of the 808 had started to decline, with the rarer TR-909 taking its place as "the dance floor drum machine to use." This is thought to have arisen for a number of reasons: the 909 gives more control over the drum sounds, has better programming and includes MIDI as standard. ''Sound on Sound'' reported that the 909 was selling for between £900 and £1100 and noted that the 808 was still collectible, but maximum prices had peaked at about £700 to £800. Despite this fascination with retro music technology, according to Derrick May "there is no recipe, there is no keyboard or drum machine which makes the best techno, or whatever you want to call it. There never has been. It was down to the preferences of a few guys. The 808 was our preference. We were using Yamaha drum machines, different percussion machines, whatever."
Emulation
In the latter half of the 1990s the demand for vintage drum machines and synthesizers motivated a number of software companies to produce computer-based emulators. One of the most notable was the ''ReBirth RB-338'', produced by the Swedish company Propellerhead and originally released in May 1997. Version one of the software featured two TB-303s and a TR-808 only, but the release of version two saw the inclusion of a TR-909. A ''Sound on Sound'' review of the RB-338 V2 in November 1998 noted that Rebirth had been called "the ultimate techno software package" and mentions that it was "a considerable software success story of 1997". In America ''Keyboard Magazine'' asserted that ReBirth had "opened up a whole new paradigm: modeled analog synthesizer tones, percussion synthesis, pattern-based sequencing, all integrated in one piece of software". Despite the success of ReBirth RB-338, it was officially taken out of production in September 2005. Propellerhead then made it freely available for download from a website called the "ReBirth Museum". The site also features extensive information about the software's history and development.
In 2001, Propellerhead released Reason (software), Reason V1, a software-based electronic music studio, comprising a 14-input automated digital mixer, 99-note polyphonic 'analogue' synth, classic Roland-style drum machine, sample-playback unit, analogue-style step sequencer, loop player, multitrack sequencer, eight effects processors, and over 500 MB of synthesizer patches and samples. With this release Propellerhead were credited with "creating a buzz that only happens when a product has really tapped into the zeitgeist, and may just be the one that many [were] waiting for." Reason is as of 2018 at version 10.
Technological advances
During the mid to late 90s, as computer technology became more accessible and music software advanced, interacting with music production technology was possible using means that bore little relationship to traditional performance, musical performance practices: for instance, laptop computer, laptop performance (''laptronica'') and live coding.
By the mid-2000s a number of software-based virtual studio environments had emerged, with products such as Propellerhead's Reason (software), Reason and Ableton Live finding popular appeal. Also during this period software versions of classic devices, that once existed exclusively in the hardware domain, became available for the first time. These software-based music production tools offered viable and cost-effective alternatives to typical hardware-based production studios, and thanks to continued advances in microprocessor technology, it became possible to create high quality music using little more than a single laptop computer. Using highly configurable software tools artists could also easily tailor their production sound by creating personalized software synthesizers, effects modules, and various composition environments. Some of the more popular programs for achieving such ends included commercial releases such as Max/Msp and Reaktor and freeware packages such as Pure Data, SuperCollider, and ChucK. In a certain sense this technological innovation lead to the resurgence of the DIY culture, DIY mentality that was once central to dance music culture. In the 00s these advances democratized music creation and lead to a significant increase in the amount of home-produced music available to the general public via the internet.
Notable techno venues
In Germany, noted techno clubs of the 1990s include Tresor and E-Werk in Berlin, Omen and Dorian Gray in Frankfurt, Ultraschall and in Munich as well as Stammheim in Kassel. In 2007, Berghain was cited as "possibly the current world capital of techno, much as E-Werk or Tresor were in their respective heydays". In the 2010s, aside from Berlin, Germany continued to have a thriving techno scene with clubs such as ''Gewölbe'' in Cologne, ''Institut für Zukunft'' in Leipzig, MMA Club and Blitz Club in Munich, ''Die Rakete'' in Nuremberg and ''Robert Johnson'' in Offenbach am Main.
In the United Kingdom, Glasgow's Sub Club
The Sub Club is a club and music venue located at 22 Jamaica Street in Glasgow, Scotland. It opened 1 April 1987 and is the longest running underground dance club in the world. The basement space can legally hold up to 410 people. In 2008 it w ...
has been associated with techno since the early 1990s and clubs such as London's Fabric (club), Fabric and Egg London have gained notoriety for supporting techno. In the 2010s, a techno scene also emerged in Georgia, with the Bassiani in Tbilisi being the most notable venue.
See also
* Detroit Electronic Music Archive
References
Bibliography
* Anz, P. & Walder, P. (eds.), ''Techno'', Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1999 ().
* Barr, T., ''Techno: The Rough Guide'', Rough Guides, 2000 ().
* Brewster B. & Broughton F., ''Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey'', Avalon Travel Publishing, 2006, ().
* Butler, M.J., ''Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music'', Indiana University Press, 2006 ().
* Cannon, S. & Dauncey, H., ''Popular Music in France from Chanson to Techno: Culture, Identity and Society'', Ashgate, 2003 ().
* Collin, M., ''Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House'', Serpent's Tail, 1998 ().
* Cosgrove, S. (a), "Seventh City Techno", ''The Face'' (97), p.88, May 1988 (International Standard Serial Number, ISSN]
0263-1210
.
* Cosgrove, S. (b)
10 Records Ltd. (UK), 1988 (LP: DIXG 75; CD: DIXCD 75).
* Cox, C.(Author), Warner D (Editor), ''Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music'', Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., 2004 ().
* Fritz, J., ''Rave Culture: An Insider's Overview'', Smallfry Press, 2000 ().
* Kodwo, E., ''More Brilliant Than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction'', Quartet Books, 1998 ().
* Nelson, A., Tu, L.T.N., Headlam Hines, A. (eds.), ''TechniColor: Race, Technology and Everyday Life'', New York University Press, 2001 ().
* Nye,
"Minimal Understandings: The Berlin Decade, The Minimal Continuum, and Debates on the Legacy of German Techno,"
in Journal of Popular Music Studies 25, no. 2(2013): 154–84.
* Pesch, M. (Author), Weisbeck, M. (Editor), ''Techno Style: The Album Cover Art'', Edition Olms; 5Rev Ed edition, 1998 ().
* Rietveld, H.C., ''This is Our House: House Music, Cultural Spaces and Technologies'', Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, 1998 ().
* Reynolds, S., ''Energy Flash: a Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture'', Pan Macmillan, 1998 ().
* Reynolds, S., ''Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture'', Routledge, New York 1999 (); Soft Skull Press, 2012 ().
* Reynolds, S., ''Energy Flash: a Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture'', Faber and Faber, 2013 ().[This 2013 edition is expanded to include coverage of dubstep and the electronic dance music, EDM boom in North America.]
* Savage, J., ''The Hacienda Must Be Built'', International Music Publications, 1992 ().
* Sicko, D., ''Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk'', Billboard Books, 1999 ().
* Sicko, D., ''Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk'', 2nd ed., Wayne State University Press, 2010 ().
* St. John, G.(ed.)
''Rave Culture and Religion''
New York: Routledge, 2004. ().
* St. John, G.(ed.)
''FreeNRG: Notes From the Edge of the Dance Floor''
Common Ground, Melbourne, 2001 ().
* St John, G
London: Equinox. 2009. .
* Toop, D., ''Ocean of Sound'', Serpent's Tail, 2001 [new edition] ().
* Watten, B., ''The Constructivist Moment: From Material Text to Cultural Poetics'', Wesleyan University Press, 2003 ().
Filmography
''High Tech Soul''
– Catalog No.: PLX-029; Label: Plexifilm; Released: 19 September 2006; Director: Gary Bredow; Length: 64 minutes.
''Paris/Berlin: 20 Years Of Underground Techno''
– Label: Les Films du Garage; Released: 2012; Director: Amélie Ravalec; Length: 52 minutes.
''We Call It Techno!''
– A documentary about Germany's early Techno scene and culture – Label: Sense Music & Media, Berlin, DE; Released: June 2008; Directors: Maren Sextro & Holger Wick.
* ''Tresor Berlin: The Vault and the Electronic Frontier'' – Label: Pyramids of London Films; Released 2004; Director: Michael Andrawis; Length: 62 minutes
''Technomania''
– Released: 1996 (screened a
''NowHere''
an exhibition held at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, between 15 May and 8 September 1996); Director: Franz A. Pandal; Length: 52 minutes.
* – Label: Les Films à Lou; Released: 1996; Director: Dominique Deluze; Length: 63 minutes.
External links
Techno Live Sets
- The #1 resource for Techno sets
"From the Autobahn to I-94: The Origins of Detroit Techno and Chicago House"
– reminiscences in 2005 by techno and house innovators
Sounds Like Techno
– online historical documentary produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
Techno from past years
– Oldie but goldie classic techno sets
{{Authority control
Techno,
Culture of Detroit
Electronic dance music genres
Subcultures
German styles of music
American styles of music