Right, following a conversation with Jim the other day, where he expressed the view that he was bored of techno, and was generally all about the UK Bass, here's a series of mixes to demonstrate why I'm more excited about techno now than at moreorless any time in the last decade. Gritty, banging, dark, shuffly, rising, glorious motherfucking techno. Yaaass:
Ancient Methods: http://fairtilizer.com/tracks/35906/download
Ze Germans, zey like ze techno very much yes. How are zey making zis compressed funk sound, we are not knowing. But it is sounding like they have spent a lot of time in Birmingham...
Sandwell District: http://soundcloud.com/minimalist86/sandwell-district-mix-resident-advisor-podcast
Detroit - Berlin - Birmingham. Oroight, oroight, it's the concentrated sound of brummie-umium.
Marcel Dettman: http://www.factmag.com/2010/05/17/fact-mix-150-marcel-dettmann/
Bit of a tour-de-force of 20 years of techno history, without getting mawkish about it like Shed seems to. Finishing on Polygon Window? Ooft.
Marcel Fengler: http://www.mixcloud.com/dego/marcel-fengler-ra209-podcast/
Why are the two leading lights of German techno both called Marcel. Is there some sort of mime connection?
Peter Van Hoesen: http://www.factmag.com/2010/05/28/fact-mix-154-peter-van-hoesen/
The Belgians, they like the techno alscho. Building dark acidic bang-bang.
This shit all sounds the same. It doesn't go anywhere, it's dull, it has no funk, it has no soul. Don't listen to it.
In fact, destroy yourself after reading this message.
Dx
"And so, I've decided to take my work back underground... to stop it falling into the wrong hands."
ReplyDeletemnml killed real techno by making it bland enough for fashionista hair victims to dance round their LED cubes to.
Techno is returning to its real home, the underground, and leaving the bizarre Hawtin/Vath mnml nexus of the OOs behind it. The sounds are once again becoming more alien, layered, subtle, complex, polyrhythmic, dark.
Are we in the middle of a revival of the genre, or am I just clutching at straws/the last remnants of my faded youth?
Discuss.
Wow this Sandwell District mix is brilliant, sinister and funky. would dearly love to download it but soundcloud download limit has been reached. Have you got it Scobes? If so get it uploaded. Use mediafire it's a breeze.(I'll actually make a post about this).
ReplyDeleteOn your previous point, I reckon there is a bit of a renaissance in non standard musical forms in general, what with the singles market killed off by the internet and commercial dubstep teaching Q readers that they don't mind it bleak and repetitive and they don't need choruses. Even in the standardized world of metal, things are getting abstract and elongated. Sun o)))'s album 'monoliths and dimensions' (sounds like a techno album eh?)was one of the most successful metal releases of last year, and it's all ambient feedback drone. I for one am loving the fact that metal kids today are sitting down to listen to half hour long ambient drone voyages featuring trombones and conch shells recorded in caves. It's brilliant.
There is also an economic argument for what you are saying Duncan, you hear it quite often, which is that all 'underground' musical genres flourish when the economy is in recession. I would say that it's more likely that there is just far more mediocre to shite music around when the economy is booming. The more expendable income cunts have, the more they feel like making shite music, patronising shite clubs and going to see shite bands. Also, techno and electronic music in general benefits from the fact that you can make it in your bedroom without annoying the neighbours. Back in the day when Joe Strummer described the Clash as a 'garage band' he was trying to make them sound earthy and working class, but now it seems almost middle class. Who has a garage these days?