Seriously Hard German Techno...

I'm really seeing something split here. I can see a new style developing that is a little bit TOO left of centre for me and I think alot of others. Distorted relentless stuff is great, I love it, but when it becomes mindless and samey I loose interest. I cant hear any funk between the beats on a few of the new german trax.

I'll continue to listen to this stuff and I WILL understand it if it kills me.

I actually really liked the new Seema on Combat Skill - wicked dark strings...

BUT

I mean it all seems to be on the 1 beat if you know what I mean. How much can you fit into 1 beat??????????????????????????

Look I might be wrong here.. I might not be listening to it right. Sven's thing on Knee Deep was perfect - one of my fave hard german tracks. I love Hard hard hard but there's a line. I don't want to slag individual producers off cause it's pointless, but some of it all sounds so digital and mindless. If I wanted to be in this frame of mind, gabba suits the purpose much better.

Look prove me wrong, tell me what I'm missing.

You're not the one who is missing something. I know exactly which producers and labels you have in mind and I really think they're hurting things over time. This idea behind the music is to just be extemely hard and fast to please aggressive minds (or people who are all jacked up on drugs). These tracks are just made to be fast and hard for the sake of being fast and hard. There's nothing musical about it, I'd say it's more of a sudden-satisfaction for one's brain.

In a way, I kind of correlate it with death metal heads. :) You know the types...stereotypical kids who love hard nasty abrasive rock music and won't accept any substitutions. Why? It allows them to let their agression out. They can't or are afraid to look a bit deeper into other music and find what they're looking for.

TBH Mark, I think it's more interesting from a psychological point of view than a musical view!

Why not slagging individual producers? I always think getting contructive criticism is a good push for improvment, as long as there is no intention to cause upset, I dont see why not sounding your opinion on certain tracks/ style some producers are on ATM. I know exactly what you are saying here, I am in Holland and currently being exposed to a lot that these mindless releases...

The problem is tekno is kinda hitting the spot this year and everyone is trying to get in for a piece. Rather quick. Hence quality falls while ameture Djs continue to pick up all the new releases without much of a LISTEN just to build up their collection on this new hot thing, it helps the producers to continue to rinse out crap tunes, until the resources (interests from punters/ Djs) are totally exhausted.

I dont think you have missed anything Mark, there are so much poo out there ATM which leave me capitial to buy more hard funky tribal tuneage

Well, continue searching for new talents you shall.

Eric.

I have to totally agree.
There are a few tracks that have an occasional melody in somewhere.
But the Funk
The Soul
and the spirit behind techno I don't see fitting in here. I saw a half decent live pa kind of ruined by my standards by someone talking jibberish over the beat in a drunken rage, It' just reflects immaturity as far as I am concerned and will turn people off to techno. It was once said that techno was a forward thinking music with no regard to the past(Derrick May), but now it seems techno itself is not having any regard for its own roots.

I got used to stuff like this from my old mates at Mainline Soundsystem (remember them?)
It becomes a competition between who can be the hardest producer, and then the DJ`s compete with this type of music to be the hardest DJ.

And to be honest with you, I don`t find it hard at all. It`s SO hard that it becomes soft, if you get me. It`s just relentless to the point where it`s like working near (or on) a building site for a while. You just don`t take notice of it anymore.

you can be so much more disturbing and hard, when you slow it down a bit, and put a lot of thought into sound design, rather than the old "oh just get any old synth and distort the barsteward" attitude.

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Originally Posted by dirty_bass

you can be so much more disturbing and hard, when you slow it down a bit, and put a lot of thought into sound design, rather than the old "oh just get any old synth and distort the barsteward" attitude.

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Yeah, Dirty_Bass, gotta say you nailed it right out of the ballpark there. Hard techno is at its best when intelligently programmed, precise and cutting.

I feel the precision in a lot of the latest super-aggressive stuff from Germany has been lacking—it just seems to go for an almost “wall-of-sound” mentality that is super-untight and therefore loses the precise/funk sound that I have always associated with techno. It’s this kind of stuff that makes me understand why people bitch about the state of hard techno (though I feel it is the exception rather than the rule).

bear in mind, records are even more for the floor than ever. not so much trax, as 6 min dj tools to layer & manipulate.

i love the overloaded stuff, but its for a club & thats that. i wouldnt stick it on if i was checkin emails at 10 am. i'll have Dj Krush or the like.

at the same time, when i go to a club, i want to hear dancefloor trax, not individual songs.


either way, the backlash has well & truly got going. it was only a matter of time (and releases) before it kicked off ;)


even a bad reaction is better than none at all :)

Kremer certainly springs to mind...

Kremer was who I thought of straight away as well. Bought one record of his, never felt the need to buy another.

I still rate what the likes of Kay D Smith are doing, although that has the danger of becoming a limited sound - but then that's the same for most producers I'd have thought, the challenge is being able to vary things and maintain quality.

I love the hard s**t, but agree that some artists are losing their way a little when it comes to producing harsh abrasive techno...

very very true. all of the above..

I spend alot of time in Germany and I have to say the HAKKE and BRIGHTON stuff they are now getting into is unbelievabely hard..no Soul and no funk...but then I have to say a good 30-40% of the audience(in certain areas) are really into this so I guess its a case of what the crowd want but its not for me.. ;)

most hard german techno bores me to death..no soul to it at all, hard for hards sake.

Not really a fan of very hard techno - but to me there are two things that differentiates good from bad (imo):

1. Quality of production reducing that dull bottom end and confused shhh shhh shhh top-end
2. Percussion Programming rather than 1 loop with filtering


...and there has been very little great hard techno about, when compared to acid, ghetto or wonk (again IMO)

yep agree with everything everyone has said. I have been getting a bit bored with it for a while. It might be me just been a music geek but i love to just sit there and listen to a tune and think how well made and structured a tune is and with the majority of hard techno being produced it just seem's like mindless distortion. Think this is why am getting into the darker side of things eg wunsch mullero reeko.

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Originally Posted by Paul Zykotik

Kremer... bought one record of his, never felt the need to buy another.

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Completely agree - never seen why people rate him!

Comat Skill - you need shooting for how bad the production is! ;)

I agree.
i like it hard, but a 155bpm beat with nuttin but highhats and silly samples, doesn´t make a track hard :roll: (kremer´s stuff for example).
it´s impossible to mix anyways, try to mix two tunes like that, it sounds just crappy...

but anyways there´s still good stuff coming out aswell, Chris noise´s last releases for example, I really liked those

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Originally Posted by Paul Zykotik

Kremer was who I thought of straight away as well. Bought one record of his, never felt the need to buy another.

I still rate what the likes of Kay D Smith are doing, although that has the danger of becoming a limited sound - but then that's the same for most producers I'd have thought, the challenge is being able to vary things and maintain quality.

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I don't put the Drizzly boyz in the same category to be honest, specially Katz n Kay D!

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but anyways there´s still good stuff coming out aswell, Chris noise´s last releases for example, I really liked those

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Do you mean the one on Fuizeball? His rmx of "rock your own show"? Absolutely belting intelligent schranz.

Anyone heard of OBI? His label Tekk Tribe? I kicked myself now for liking the stuff few months back... Soulless at it best.[/quote]

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Originally Posted by SummerOfSam

I don't put the Drizzly boyz in the same category to be honest, specially Katz n Kay D!

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Sorry, I haven't quite got what ye mean - you think they're better or worse?

I think they've put out some awesome tunes over the last few years.