Hard techno's shooting itself!

Beginning to see a trend that's departing from the hard stuff and lapping up other styles of techno.. i don't reckon it's because the other stuff is any more intelligent in many cases but basically because hard techno is being mass produced/released to beat the band and it's becoming increasingly time consuming to find good stuff, so people aren't bothering. I'm gonna go as far as saying that hard techno has completely shot itself in the foot, the whole thing is alienating itself, people need to take a breather and 'feel' techno again so they are sidetracking the hard stuff and digging deeper. I'm not meaning to have a moan here, but I am becoming quite discouraged by the way hard techno stands at the moment...

oh, and this isn't something that's just happened overnight, i appreciate that.. but imo this is the bleakest time for hard techno in quite some time :cry:

too many people are making it and they all seem to want to sound like glenn wilson.
that kinda music is so 'big' sonically, (and that super-processed big sound is what every hard techno producer would seems to aim for) that there is little room for variation in sound due to the mix space allways being rammed solid and it takes a very skilled producer to cram many sounds that shine with much depth or tone to them into a mix like that i think.
I think some of the hard techno guys need to experiment with a deeper sound at the moment.

Yeah, I`ve thought this for ages, the heavily compressed percussive sound has got a little tired and has in a lot of cases become pretty lifeless and cold. I think people need some amount of humanity in their music to be able to relate to it.

i think people can still relate to hard techno, its just thier is too damn much of it so it gets godamn boring

godamnit

i dont agree. i just think that hard techno has now become a 'style', a pigeon hole and it's harder to experiment with it. hard techno is great, i love it but i reckon ppl are starting to look deeper too. great. it's all good.

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Originally Posted by MARK EG

i dont agree. i just think that hard techno has now become a 'style', a pigeon hole and it's harder to experiment with it. hard techno is great, i love it but i reckon ppl are starting to look deeper too. great. it's all good.

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Fair point. In a way I'm not too displeased I suppose as it's making me look around more than I had before and to appreciate other stuff more than I had done in the past. I guess i see hard techno getting very diluted though, and when something becomes as popular across the board the whole thing just begins to feel wrong :lol: In seriousness though, it has become *a lot* more formulated of late, I'm finding it very hard to pick out producers who are standing up and saying "**** you, there ye go, that's what I do" :twisted:

Yeah, I'll agree with you guys. I won't mention names out of fairness, but a lot of the producers on this board that are spoken of on a regular basis haven't done a whole lot for hard techno lately. I used to pick up all of the stuff coming out on Glenn's labels, like Compound, PR, Heroes, etc.

Lately, that stuff has gotten a bit formulamatic and kinda stale and I just can't get into it as much at the moment. I really "hard techno" tracks from the late 99 era. Really raw, aggressive bass with a bunch of funk and jack to it. (Read: Headroom - Shades of Shape) These days its all machine techno.

I must say though, Planet Rhythm is doing a decent job lately at bringing back some of that old school sound with a futuristic twist. Even Invexis's new compound shows some old school influence.

I still really enjoy the hard stuff at the moment. Admittenly I am losing interest with the German stuff at the moment, the harder German stuff, but like aint it just a phase, another phase in the cyclic nature of all things. The Natus et al. style was rad this time last year, now, I don't know, it's not as new really.

The introduction of more and more producers is the key really. You know, if you're charting for newer waters, why don't you start playing prog, deep house or something similar. Give producing a different genre a go, it will be different and probably a new challenge, a new goal.

I hope the clubbier side of techno becomes vouge. It's sorta been quiet there for a while, well maybe where I live anyway.

I agree that some hard techno has got a little generic, but top producers such as Skoog, Wilson, The Anxious, Klein and Rodell have kept things more than interesting for me personally. The devastating Wittekind/Laker sound still does it for me too i have to confess, love those hammer beats...

OK, so you may have to sift through more records these days before you find somin that's gonna go straight in the box, but when you do come across those records, i find it more rewarding having had to search a little harder...

Plus, it's like Mark says, there are more specific genres of hard techno than ever before right now, so it stands to reason that certain sounds are gonna become slightly dilute...

Its been like that since I can remember. Like all techno, hard edge tunes are easy to produce but not so easy to really write a floor filling anthem: 30% dull toss, >60% mediocre, <10% genius.

And as for finding good tunes being far too time consuming - really don't know what you are talking about. The only problem I have is keeping buying to £60 a week. Maybe you need to free yo ass and yo mind will follow :)

I find that every now and again i can't find any tunes that i like at all, and sometimes i can't find enough cash to buy all the tunes i want. I'm not sure wether to put this down to a drought of good tunes at times or the frame of mind i'm in when i'm trying to find tunes.
I'm also finding more and more that i when i listen to samples of tunes from sites and don't take to them. Then listen to them in my local store and love them.
Then bring myself back to the old frame of mind question........... :bash:

Iwould agree that there is more boring tunes being released but there are still alot of great tunes out there. It just means when you find them your even more pleased with your find!

Skull records were guilty of stealing loops from Glenn Wilson some time ago?? Am I correct??

Running out of ideas perhaps??

From what I remember they'd been using loops off of commercial loop sets, and several other producers had been using the same ones.

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Originally Posted by Numeric

I agree that some hard techno has got a little generic, but top producers such as Skoog, Wilson, The Anxious, Klein and Rodell have kept things more than interesting for me personally....

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I'm with you on this one, Numeric.

Sure, there is something of an over-abundance of hard techno at the moment but there are still quality producers in the genre who are putting out quality records. As long as that's the case i don't think hard techno as part of the techno "family tree" has too much to worry about.

i think its the same when there is a big boom in any genre, it does in the end start to tire a little. Ive had this discussion with a few peeps lately and everyone does seem to be getting a little bored with that big, hard sound at the moment. I definately am getting a bit bored with it, but i dont mean to say i dont like it! its great, theres nothing better than a big, dirty, stomping mess of a tune, but musically ive started to get into more subtle variations on hard techno, ala Surgeon, Regis etc etc. This sorta stuff is musically alot tougher than ur average banger, but in its own unique way.

Also i think alot of hard techno is too fast these days, the producers should pitch the tracks at say an average of 140bpm and if the dj wants to play it faster they can!!!

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Originally Posted by eyes without a face

i think its the same when there is a big boom in any genre, it does in the end start to tire a little. Ive had this discussion with a few peeps lately and everyone does seem to be getting a little bored with that big, hard sound at the moment. I definately am getting a bit bored with it, but i dont mean to say i dont like it! its great, theres nothing better than a big, dirty, stomping mess of a tune, but musically ive started to get into more subtle variations on hard techno, ala Surgeon, Regis etc etc. This sorta stuff is musically alot tougher than ur average banger, but in its own unique way.

Also i think alot of hard techno is too fast these days, the producers should pitch the tracks at say an average of 140bpm and if the dj wants to play it faster they can!!!

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i agree on both points. i personally prefer to play my records at 130-140 to let some of the percussive subtlety come out. slower than average, and definately not for everyone, but i figure that it's good to have some variety out there...

as for the state of hard techno--and techno in general--i think everything sounds too cookie cutter right now, but i can't help but think that this means something big is on the way. something that's really going to shock and awe...

I've had my share but I guess having all the new djs play 10 trackz of this x producer and 20 of that y, and mind u I'm talking about formulaic work, doing all the cut bass bring new record in, swap bass eq, take out record... formula ... :eh: techno used 2 b doing it yer way and trying 2 make it as best as u can... I don't wanna bang my own drum but if people played more varied stuff we'd all by luving ALL our techno... good and bad coexist in each genre!! I confess 2 b turned off but a lot of the harder, faster more aproach!!!



Bud Respect above all,


Z

i must say i am getting bored with the hard for the sake of being hard stuff and am getting back into my surgeon and regis style stuff. Loop after loop of hard stuff is ok but the tunes i am playing at the minute i feel are a lot more intelligent if you know what i mean