Early days of techno

[omen8productions]

SWIM searched and saw a post about early rave culture a few days ago he can no longer find.

SWIM is a bit too young to remember the late eighties/early nineties. he resided in a artist space/warehouse in a major city for a few years. the founders's inspiration was partially that era of early electronica and the rave scene. since then SWIM has been fascinated by that time and looking for as much info as possible. stories, thoughts, books, movies, art, (documentaries?)...anything...

peace

[Bajeda]

Read Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: A History of the Disc Jockey and you'll know alot more about the music.

[thinkcooper]

Originally Posted by omen8productions

SWIM searched and saw a post about early rave culture a few days ago he can no longer find.

SWIM is a bit too young to remember the late eighties/early nineties. he resided in a artist space/warehouse in a major city for a few years. the founders's inspiration was partially that era of early electronica and the rave scene. since then SWIM has been fascinated by that time and looking for as much info as possible. stories, thoughts, books, movies, art, (documentaries?)...anything...

peace

I sent you an IM with a link to Ishkar's Guide to Electronic Music site. Google Ishkar's for a nice backgrounder...

[Alfa]

Ishkur

[sciencedj]

Originally Posted by Alfa

Ishkur

This site is truly amazing...thumbs up for the genius behind this site....!

[omen8productions]

ps-disregarding an entire genre of music is clearly a sign of a weaker brain. in 1,000 years, they will exterminate you at birth. close-minedness like this will get you your own house, with a ROOM IN IT WHERE YOU CAN LISTEN TO ALL YOU MUSIC ALONE AND MARVEL AT HOW WONDERFUL YOUR TASTES ARE.

CAPS LOCK, BUT JUST TO LAZY TO CARE.

have fun listening to the monkees, or john tesh. whatever you prople who say "rap suck" listen to.

peace

[xctico]

Originally Posted by omen8productions

ps-disregarding an entire genre of music is clearly a sign of a weaker brain. in 1,000 years, they will exterminate you at birth. close-minedness like this will get you your own house, with a ROOM IN IT WHERE YOU CAN LISTEN TO ALL YOU MUSIC ALONE AND MARVEL AT HOW WONDERFUL YOUR TASTES ARE.

CAPS LOCK, BUT JUST TO LAZY TO CARE.

have fun listening to the monkees, or john tesh. whatever you prople who say "rap suck" listen to.

peace

Yeah/? How do you feel about polka?

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by Alfa

Ishkur

Definitely a great start for anyone looking to delve into reaching a greater understanding of electronic music and where it came from. Keep in mind that the comments are more opinionated, though the charts themselves are pretty accurate. Can't wait until the next version comes out, if Ishkur ever gets to finishing it.

I started with Ishkur and searching through several forums for electronic music, then read the book I suggested in my earlier post. It helped connect the dots much better and get a comprehensive picture of the genre as well as how it ties in to the rest of the music scene.



I know the threadstarter was mainly interested in the rave scene it seems, and he wasn't asking for music recs, but I thought I'd throw in a few recommendations.

The History Of The House Sound Of Chicago - 150 tracks from the beginnings of House as it combined other 'danceable' genres to the evolution of the genre as it diversified and broadened its scope. Finishes with Acid House (which would help spawn the rave scene) and Deep House. If you are into House music but want to get away from the same choons you hear in the club all the time and see where it all came from then this is for you. I don't know if you can buy this set anymore, and it would probably be prohibitively expensive if you could, but you can still find it on torrent sites.

Journey Into Paradise: The Larry Levan Story - One of the greatest DJs ever, and a huge influence on the evolution of the club scene, garage & house, and djing in general. While not specifically related to the genre of house, garage is quite a bit a part of it. You can draw the connection between uptempo R&B, dancey funk, disco, pop, rock, blues, and everything else Larry used in his sets to the explosion of house music. This cd has a great selection of tracks, and is a good way to get into the more transitional stage of electronic music, when it wasn't completely digital or completely physically produced either. Really makes one wish they could have gone to the Paradise Garage when it was around and dance to Levan's spinning.


Rave! - This isn't a cd here, I just simply put the genre in bold. The rave scene had its ups and downs, migrations across the Atlantic, commercialization vs. subculture conflict, and legal/political problems. It makes it a bit tricky to get into old skool rave music as not everyone agrees what exactly fits in to the genre. Still, here are a few cd suggestions (torrents, though you could probably find them to buy) for people trying to find some 'rave' music. Various Artists - Ravin'... This has a good selection of tracks from the height of the rave scene, though some cheese slipped in. Still a good start, as it has some key songs. Various Artists - Old Skool Masters 1... Want a better picture of the real rave scene, as opposed to what you'd get from most compilations that all have pretty much the same commercial stuff? This album is definitely worth looking at if you want a better sense of what the rave scene produced. The 2nd and 3rd editions of the Old Skool Masters compilation are supposedly good as well, though I can't vouch for them. I can't post the link as it violates a few rules I think, but google 'backtotheoldskool' and the first result should be a co.uk site. On the first page of search results there should be a link to the specific subpage of 'rave_history_index' that will have a variety of songs to check out, plus the site has some other good rave resources as well.


Thats all for now...

[Woodman]

Thank you for the link, Alfa.

I find many of the listed categories fall well into my definition of "techno", but there is not much on Rap.

This is as it should be, because Rap suck!

[omen8productions]

what exactly is it about rap that you find so disagreeable? do you consider hip-hop rap?

[AceOvArts]

I progressed from hip hop to techno to drum n bass to trip hop and back to hip hop....love most dance stuff (I currently listen to anything from indie to rap from beatles to 80s pop). Im sure there is a style of rap to suit most people. Try not to be so blinkered woodman expand your mind musically

[allyourbase]

ishkur has it all backward. punk developed into post punk, then post modern and that into industrial, an untalented industrial musician called "the orb" "invented" techno (which is really just a repetative unmelodic bastardization of industrial). this combined with the hippy rave scene started by the grateful dead leaving us where we are now, all these other offshoots house trance et cetera, are just different names for the same uninspiring repetative music above mentioned. labling industrial as a form of techno will get you beaten to death by any rivet head. einsturzende neubauten and throbbing gristle should not ever be lumped together with moronic DJs making fart sounds with turntables. industrial musicians PRODUCE MUSIC. they program, they dont buy a bunch of records with samples other people have produced on them, scratch those up on a pair of cheap turn tables and claim to be musicians.

[Bajeda]

I think you are misinterpreting things a bit.

First off, I see techno's roots in more ambient yet repetitive styled groups such as Kraftwerk. Detroit Techno, which I think was the foundation for the entire genre, was pretty much started by Juan Atkins and his buddies and spread around the Mid-West until it headed over to Europe and saw another evolutionary shift. I don't really relate Industrial and Techno in my mind when I think about either one.

Industrial music is more separated from EDM and the overall genre of electronic music. And you are generalizing quite a bit of the EDM genre with your statements. Sure there are crappy artists who make lots of money with little to no work or talent, and some certain subgenres that have emerged are complete rubbish. That doesn't mean you can just dismiss all non-industrial electronic music as a whole, even with its current commercialization. Do you judge rock or hip-hop by the artists you see in the top 100 charts? Then don't judge all the electronic genres (which I don't think you have a good background in, judging from how you described the history and styles of techno, trance, and house) by the few really commercial artists who in no way represent the whole.

[allyourbase]

I agree to some extent (I actually like groups like kraftwerk and welle;Erdball!), but groups like that, to me, arent representative of the techno scene we have currently, as they dont do the rave thing nor refer to themselves as dj scuttlebutt of some other lame psuedonym. and that "ishkur" fellow, placed industrial under the genre trance, something which is most laughable. "trance" didnt really evolve until the late 80s whereas industrial music has been around since the mid 70s. to me the only really interesting subgenre that has come from "techno" is Gabber. Besides the obvious mathematic intricacies of square wave dymanics, the groups such as ultraviolence are actually reinstituting melody, something Ive found highly lacking from anything labled "techno" in the past decade or so.

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by allyourbase

and that "ishkur" fellow, placed industrial under the genre trance, something which is most laughable. "trance" didnt really evolve until the late 80s whereas industrial music has been around since the mid 70s.

There is industrial under two other main categories as well, though that refers to subgenres that mix the particular style of music with industrial influences.

I don't really know why Industrial got placed in Trance, as I don't know enough about Industrial music's history. It was in the correct chronology though, as you'll see in the guide that Industrial is placed in the mid to late 70s and Trance is where it should be in the later years. You can tell by the little white 'ripples' going out from the top left corner of each section that mark the time period.

Originally Posted by allyourbase

to me the only really interesting subgenre that has come from "techno" is Gabber. Besides the obvious mathematic intricacies of square wave dymanics, the groups such as ultraviolence are actually reinstituting melody, something Ive found highly lacking from anything labled "techno" in the past decade or so.

Techno isn't my favourite genre of electronic music by far, but I still like certain elements of it. In particular I like Acid Techno, Tribal Techno, Hard Techno (certain artists only), and a few other mixed-influence artists/songs that stand apart. European techno isn't especially my thing, though I can listen to it if im in the mood.

Alot of it is pure personal preference. Techno is too repetitive for many people. I've come to appreciate rhythm and the 'beat' enough that I enjoy much more techno today than when I first started getting into electronic music, though alot of it is older. I don't see much of a future for techno in its current state, but that doesn't detract from the great stuff the genre already produced.

[Benga]

not very organised, but on a more subjective note the commercial dayglow smileys of acid house and "new beeeeeeat" and strange groups from belgium and the media hype about ecstasy and "acid" in "acid" house parties, smileys being banned from schools as potential references to the drugs, the budding warehouse raves around london, Ibiza, where he'd been going every year with his parents since 1983 sarting to buzz a lot in the late 80's, the first street parades of gay community in the streets of the old town, the british and german explosion after 1985 with charter tours and cheap hotels, San Antonio becoming a havoc, parties starting to seem much cooler than the night clubs of the days ( pacha, ku (privilege before it burned downed and reopened), amnesia etc...), night clubs starting to hosts house, then goa events themselves (shiva space technology in amnesia ???), the Space expansion, and finally going to his first raves in Ibiza in the 1990's, the last good memories being Ibiza outdoor parties in 1994, then trying to find the same vibes in Paris (call the hotline, get the buse's departure point, then as things got hotter, the meeting point for a car caravan.....) and quickly giving up on that. Going to an (illegal) hardcoreparty in the fields where a man was beaten up and raped cools one down. techno and especially goa parties growing in france after 1994 with associations with technotantz, e pills costing 15 to 20 euros more than what they probably cost now, then becoming big commercial, then mainstream events ( frowning upon the new trend of ravewear, whistles and glowsticks) before little more human sized "freeparties" became hip again, in parallel with the technotraveller tribes gathering and festivals (spiral tribe etc etc) then european technivals the dogs and naked kids running amongst tripping parents....the jungle house explosion, losing the vocal flow to become breakbeat, then drum and bass, house and techno entering then taking over the nightclub scene of paris. french electronica glory and decadence. smoking joints in the strange ambient parties of some night clubs (low lights, smart drinks ambient) such as Lilli la Tigresse and the Globo (didn't last long)... last (big) parties swim went to where in 1995 and 1996 in India (was there, met people, deciding swim would check it out), avoiding Goa. surreal scenes of a baba running in the desert with loudspeakers to set up a fullmoon party near pushkar, and camel towtrucks. parleys with the military police. swim doesn't listen to electronica nowadays, but enjoys it for dancing, but some of swim's friends have stayed in this and became dj's , then composers since ibiza of the early to mid 1990's. even in the 1990's there was a big nostalgia for the late 1980's.

b

[namooP]

For lighter coverage, have a read through Ministry of Sounds Clubbing Guide to Life. It has a drigs section too, but its not very good.