Roots of Techno recommendations

swears

swears

preppy-kei
Cheers, doods.

Wow. Lots of good stuff (tunes, mixes, comps, even books and films) recomended, as that beardy fella on Knightmare used to say "Good work, team!" Too much to go through right now, though. So, yeeaaahhh, ta.
 
W

wonk_vitesse

radio eros
that deep house website is a revelation, thanks Gabba,

For my 2ps worth> Kraftwerk & Moroder had laid the foundations of techno, the idea that sequenced music could work. A bunch of guys fiddlin with cheap boxes in Detroit just pushed it forward, never forget the technology here.

Anyone with a love of techno will surely love Konono who are performing on sunday at the Barbican, outside :)
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
wonk_vitesse said:
that deep house website is a revelation, thanks Gabba,

For my 2ps worth> Kraftwerk & Moroder had laid the foundations of techno, the idea that sequenced music could work. A bunch of guys fiddlin with cheap boxes in Detroit just pushed it forward, never forget the technology here.

Anyone with a love of techno will surely love Konono who are performing on sunday at the Barbican, outside :)
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Looking forward to that show - thanks to whoever mentioned it a while back (perhaps it was yourself). Otherwise I'd never have known.
 
swears

swears

preppy-kei
*geeking out here a bit*

wonk_vitesse said:
For my 2ps worth> A bunch of guys fiddlin with cheap boxes in Detroit just pushed it forward, never forget the technology here.
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Yeah, I've read a lot about how in the mid-eighties, all the big high-end pop producers were into digital FM synths like the Yamaha DX7, or the then ultra expensive Fairlight samplers. Your Trevor Horns and Herbie Hancocks had access to this stuff, but for your average joe without a huge record company budget, it was totally out of reach. One positive aspect of this was that no "serious" signed artist was going to be seen dead with some ropey old analogue gear constantly tweaking dials and fiddling about with patch sheets to stay in tune/timbre. So all the now-classic Roland gear was cheap as chips. You could grab an obsolete TB-303 for peanuts, lay a track down in a budget studio, and whack out some vinyl.

So perhaps the main catalyst for these new forms was the gear rather than the music. Obviously you can hear how a track like "Pocket Calculator" had an impact, but music (and culture in general) is so referential now that we have a hard time imagining that these Chicago and Detroit pioneers may well have just fucked about with a pattern and said "Yeah, that fits.." rather than "I must make a tune that sounds like Telex, with a bit of Funkadelic crossed with Cabaret Voltaire." Sure, all that good stuff was in the background, but the originality of these tracks (Warp's Influences comp is a good intro to wahat I'm talking about.) suggests that they weren't too hung up on thier heroes.
 
Landfill Elektronikz

Landfill Elektronikz

-
swears said:
Sure, all that good stuff was in the background, but the originality of these tracks (Warp's Influences comp is a good intro to wahat I'm talking about.) suggests that they weren't too hung up on thier heroes.
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Some truth in there, for sure. 'Acid' exists entirely because of the 303, and all those guys were using out-of-date equipment cos it was so cheap and accessable. Still, with the Detroit guys I think there was a lot of theory and philosophy going on - May once recalled the extensive discussions he would have with Atkins about where the music should be going, what it must represent, etc.
 
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henry s

Street Fighting Man
isn't it also true that the Big Three copped the term "techno" from Alvin Toffler's book The Third Wave?...(in reference to "techno rebels")...that's kinda heady...(in fact, I'm hard-pressed to think off-the-cuff of other links between electronic music and literature)...Atkins in particular comes off in interviews as a pretty deep thinker, always seeming to place the birth of techno in the context of the alienation of post-"white flight" Detroit and the alienating/liberating effects of mass production (i.e. the assembly lines of the other Big Three)...Kodwo Eshun writes pretty clearly (for a change) about the many ways to define "alien" in the context of Detroit techno (in More Brilliant Than The Sun), and come to think of it, Larry "Mr. Fingers" Heard's most Detroit LP is the one he titled Alien...
 
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michael

Bring out the vacuum
swears said:
So all the now-classic Roland gear was cheap as chips. You could grab an obsolete TB-303 for peanuts, lay a track down in a budget studio, and whack out some vinyl.
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There's a classic press shot of Oscar Peterson with a 303 (bassline synth) and 606 (drum machine) hooked up above his piano, demonstrating how you could use them as an accompaniment while practicing your jazz. Not serious instruments, of course, just a step beyond a little home organ drum machine.

There's many a worn argument about the abuse of technology, or its use in ways the manufacturers never intended, being as important as the arrival of the technology itself...

Bla bla... all this roots-delving makes me feel tired just thinking about it.
 
G

Gabba Flamenco Crossover

High Sierra Skullfuck
Nick Gutterbreakz said:
Some truth in there, for sure. 'Acid' exists entirely because of the 303, and all those guys were using out-of-date equipment cos it was so cheap and accessable. Still, with the Detroit guys I think there was a lot of theory and philosophy going on - May once recalled the extensive discussions he would have with Atkins about where the music should be going, what it must represent, etc.
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What interests me about detroit techno is that from it's earliest beginnings it was based on theorizing. When techno became unfashionable in the late 90s, a lot of people went with the line that this boffin/theorist side of techno was something europeans had disingeniously grafted on to a hedonistic black dance form - but you read anything about the original detroit scene and you realize that's just not true. The centrality of detroit to european rave might have been later revisionism, but the conceptualization was there from the word go.
 
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mms

sometimes
Gabba Flamenco Crossover said:
What interests me about detroit techno is that from it's earliest beginnings it was based on theorizing. When techno became unfashionable in the late 90s, a lot of people went with the line that this boffin/theorist side of techno was something europeans had disingeniously grafted on to a hedonistic black dance form - but you read anything about the original detroit scene and you realize that's just not true. The centrality of detroit to european rave might have been later revisionism, but the conceptualization was there from the word go.
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there is that but when you just picked up the records in black sleeves with little informatin apart from a number address and writing credits not alot of the theoristic stuff passed into yr brain, and titles like 'nude photo' didn't help much..;)
 
T

tate

Brown Sugar
henry s said:
isn't it also true that the Big Three copped the term "techno" from Alvin Toffler's book The Third Wave?...(in reference to "techno rebels")...that's kinda heady...(in fact, I'm hard-pressed to think off-the-cuff of other links between electronic music and literature)...Atkins in particular comes off in interviews as a pretty deep thinker, always seeming to place the birth of techno in the context of the alienation of post-"white flight" Detroit and the alienating/liberating effects of mass production (i.e. the assembly lines of the other
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(From Hoffman's article linked upthread):

Juan Atkins: It has always been techno music. I always called the music I was making techno music.

Kevin Saunderson: We called it "techno" because of Juan. He was the main influence because he called his music "techno". [sings] "Uuuh, Techno City..."

Eddie Fowlkes: For me my first record was more of a house record even though it was hard. But back then you didn't think too much about how to call it. When Neil Rushton put this compilation together (Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit) Derrick wanted to call it "The Best of Detroit House". But then Juan said: "You can all call your music house but what I do is techno music.

Juan Atkins: See, that was because Derrick was going to Chicago and they tried to call our music the house sound of Detroit. In Chicago, you had the Jesse Saunders stuff and the Jamie Principle stuff and titles like "acid house" or something like that. But that was Techno! They just didn't call it that because it would give Detroit too much influence.

Mike Grant: Detroit had this more funky edge while Chicago was more disco. In Detroit you had Mojo [legendary Detroit radio DJ Electrifiyin' Mojo] on the radio who played Jimi Hendrix, the Gap Band, Parliament/Funkaldelic, and a lot of the European things, whereas folks in Chicago were more focused on disco. To me that stuff out of Detroit was very different from the Chicago sound. It's right more synthesizer-based whereas house music was more drum machine-based. You can hear that difference even right back to Cybotron.

Juan Atkins: When you listen to Chicago recods, a lot of them sounded like Philly International records. They were always like the Philly International disco sound. Going "ks-ks-ks-ks..." you know! That's the whole difference. In Detroit we don't have any real reference point. All the Detroit stuff was pure futuristic. The only thing that we really had in common was the form.

Eddie Fowlkes: The main difference between the two cities was that Chicago was more disco while Detroit was more funk. You know Amp Fiddler? The way he dresses, the way his hair is that's the Detroit funk style.

Kevin Saunderson: I started making music simply because I needed more tracks to DJ. Juan had a stronger vision: He wanted to create this new technological, electronic music, this "techno". I always loved club music. I loved the Paradise Garage in New York and I loved deep music. I like disco and I like vocals. Juan and Derrick were more inspired by European music. But I came from New York, I was inspired more from disco. The European music was important because it introduced this new technology to us. That you can make your own records with these machines...

Juan Atkins: There was definetely competition between the Chicago and the Detroit DJs. We all wanted to be famous. But we were also friends, Tyree Cooper and all of these guys. Farley was a good friend. We went to Farley in Chicago just to hang out and they came to Detroit.

. . .

In 1987, the whole thing developed into a new direction. Derrick had success with his records like "Nude Photo". That made more people interested in Detroit. Now you got "Nude Photo", you got "Goodbye Kiss", you got "Triangle of Love", and you got "Groovin' Without Doubt". All these records were coming out of Detroit. So we sold these to the distributors to export them overseas. Suddenly they became an interest in London. People there were already interested in Chicago because of all these "Jack" tracks. Then Derrick met the British record label owner Neil Rushton who had already put together some Chicago compilations and then did the Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit in 1988. So Derrick was the bridge to Europe.
 
swears

swears

preppy-kei
Just listening to Chip E's "Time To Jack".
Wow, technically it sounds like total shit. Really lo-fi, so badly mixed and eq'd. But fucking hell, I can see how this would have blown people's heads off in '86. Totally without precedent, a functional club track with no song, feeling, or any of that other nonsense attached, simply pure pounding beats, a bassline and a dryly delivered instruction to "jack". Perhaps the problem now with dance music is that people aren't limited enough by their equipment. The emptiness of this tune blows me away. And what the fuck is with that dog barking half way through?
 
D

D84

Well-known member
What do you guys think of the influence of the blues on techno - esp. that chugga chugga `90s sound?

I'm thinking in particular of Bo Diddley whose "Who Do You Love" I heard for the first time a few years ago (genius track) which seems to be echoed in some of the techno tracks I've got - eg. Aubrey's Marathon.

I just did some web-searches about this and found this interview with Carl Craig where he dreams of collaborating with Bo Diddley - so maybe there's something to it..
 
M

Martin Dust

Techno Zen Master
henry s said:
isn't it also true that the Big Three copped the term "techno" from Alvin Toffler's book The Third Wave?...(in reference to "techno rebels")...that's kinda heady...(in fact, I'm hard-pressed to think off-the-cuff of other links between electronic music and literature)...Atkins in particular comes off in interviews as a pretty deep thinker, always seeming to place the birth of techno in the context of the alienation of post-"white flight" Detroit and the alienating/liberating effects of mass production (i.e. the assembly lines of the other Big Three)...Kodwo Eshun writes pretty clearly (for a change) about the many ways to define "alien" in the context of Detroit techno (in More Brilliant Than The Sun), and come to think of it, Larry "Mr. Fingers" Heard's most Detroit LP is the one he titled Alien...
Click to expand...

True enough, but I've always figured Richard Davis was a big influence on Juan and that's where all this came from...
 
C

Client Eastwood

Well-known member
Was also reviewed in The Metro yesterday.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/01/10/the-l...es-a-terrifying-blueprint-for-cities-3345265/

"British readers might wonder what Detroit has to do with them, but the collapse of manufacturing, its yawning unemployed, the tension generated by a usually white liberal class who seize on gentrification possibilities (and the desire to turn dereliction into abstract art) are universal modern concerns. Cities contain many stories, many symbols. But as one resident puts it, they are also ‘real’ places, where many people with dreams and hopes have to live."

Could Detroit become the next Berlin with the large, cheap places to rent/buy ?
 
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