TECHNO

Techno…. ah, techno. I don’t think it’s quite true to say that there are two kinds of people in the world regarding techno- it’s an enigma, and its public reputation- as a soundtrack to all-night excess- is certainly not unwarranted, but to stop there and call it a mechanical backdrop to drug-taking is to do a grave disservice to one of the most fascinating, strange, and most of all of all musical forms. The old cliche about being ‘able to get high on the music, maaan’ is actually true- but even that is to stop far short of doing the form justice.

Techno, at its roots, is possibly the first truly pan-global form of music- the term originated in the desolate industrial wastelands of detroit- the story of the legendary quartet (Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May and Eddie Fowlkes) of local kids absorbing the funk and soul heritage of their city and fusing it with the futuristic sounds of German (and British) electronic music is familiar to many- and the best techno is still hugely redolent of both sides of that funk, soul and experimental electronic heritage, albeit stripped back in many cases to a minimal abstraction. So from two, apparently utterly opposed, musical traditions- the soulful, loose, rhythmic and melodic heritage of black american music, and the precise, studied, technical perfection of Kraftwerk and their ilk- came a music which combined aspects of both into one, newly compelling whole.

To say that these two heritages were so opposed of course is to oversimplify to the point of distortion- Motown was founded as much on exacting studio practice, precise songwriting and flawless musicianship as was Kling Klang, and likewise the Kosmische tradition contains a hell of a lot of groove-laden soulfulness, and the beauty of techno is to connect the common threads between the traditions as much as to blend the opposing aspects.

And of course these influences aren’t the only things to have poured into the music over the years- Sheffield synth-pop was as important German electronic music in the early development of the genre, and elements of everything from minimal classical music to dub reggae has found itself threaded into techno’s immortal pulse over the years by artists such as Basic Channel, Surgeon, and Robert Hood. The very fact that the music can be so stripped-back allows producers leeway to play with sounds, ideas and production techniques in a sometimes uniquely free manner, divorced from the constraints of traditional song structure- some of the strangest sounds I’ve heard have been worked into techno DJ sets.

And its development continues apace- forever being refined and reviewed, ever more subtle, its newest practicioners (I’m currently particularly fond of Berlin ‘economical’ techno maestros Exercise One) making music that’s ostensibly simple but which is powered by a heady combination of soul, hedonism and exacting intelligence.