West Coast USA... techno scene?

What's up everyone!

I've been playing & producing techno here in the midwest USA for the past few years (Madison, WI specifically)...I've had the chance to play in minneapolis & chicago, and have grown quite accustomed to the midwest.

I've got a chance to move out west with my closest friends this year, but I've only heard a little bit about the various techno scenes on the West coast. I seem to get the impression that house & trance are a lot more popular in the clubs there. I'll be making the tough decision soon of whether to stay in the midwest (probably just move to Chicago) or head out to Cali. with my friends (I think they are planning for the San Fran. area).

Coming from the relatively small scene here in Madison, it seems like moving to a bigger city with more people would be a good thing...however, I'd hate to move out west with high expectations and end up wishing I'd stayed here.

Any input from heads near Portland, Seattle, San Fran, LA, or any other major city out west would be greatly appreciated! I feel like I've got a better shot at some genuine responses here than on a board full of Cali-ravers with little / no interest in 'techno' specifically.

Thanks for your input!

Madison? Have you come across a DJ named Josh (Ruckus) he moved up there from Texas earlier this year. Sorry in advance for getting off subject. :oops:

I guarantee that you would be extremely disappointed if you moved from the mid-west to the west-coast in search of techno. There are some people doing stuff with techno on the west-coast, just nobody to really support it :\

I can't believe I am here on the West Coast...
I will honestly say there is promise, and things will be done in the near future. ;)

Don't know about a scene as such, but I recently played a party in San Diego that was surprisingly good

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Originally Posted by SummerOfSam

I can't believe I am here on the West Coast...
I will honestly say there is promise, and things will be done in the near future. ;)

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Yeah bitch, you came all this way, you should have just gone up a bit more to our neck of the woods. But noooooo, instead you have to go to friggin' Arizona :dontevengothere:

But honestly, there is some hope. Things have gotten a little better on the west coast as of lately, but the mid-west still takes the pot. We just need more people doing stuff here to inspire the local listeners, so maybe you should move to the west coast instead of staying in the mid-west. You could help with the building of an evil techno empire. :twisted:

ok. maybe we should ask a new batch of questions.

who are the techno soldiers on the west coast? who are the crews? the established djs? what are the labels? where do people shop for their records?

Im from Manchester England, so i know **** all, but i have a few contacts over that way ! One of them being Dhyan Moller - he made one of my favourite tracks of last year, with a Pacou remix ! Apparantley he uses all Serge modular gear ! Here are his contacts, get in touch with him he is a sound guy and will probably be involved with the party scene over there !
sergeguy@willitsonline.com
www.phuturenow.net

Also Steve Stoll is living in the Mid-west area now, this means nothing to me though, i dont have a clue where the mid-west is !! ;)

Also there are a couple of brothers called Paul and Christopher Leath, who do a thing called El Otro Mundo sessions, they range from house to Techno, check there site - www.elotromundo.com - they seem to be well in with the scene over there, definately worth contacting !

Regards

Jay

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Originally Posted by Internal Error Records

who are the techno soldiers on the west coast? who are the crews? the established djs? what are the labels? where do people shop for their records?

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I will try to speak for what I know so I apologize in advance if I left you out...

Seattle -- Jimmy Hoffa (the dj not the teamster) is doing a weekly techno night. Platinum Records is a decent store. DJ Jakub has techno mixes frequently on the net. Adam Zelt I belive is still making techno.

Portland -- Mafia Records homebase. Myself and Markus Alan (Primal) reside here. Very miniscule techno scene, but I know of a lot of people who have moved out here from Madison...maybe the weed?

S.F. -- I know of a guy who goes by Catharsis who does techno shows every once in a while. Jon Williams resides here...Love Parade was a total disgrace this past year. House and trance rule here.

L.A. -- Droid! The Droid fellas reside here...good peeps with quality music and quality shows.

I think if you move to the west coast you would have an equal shot almost anywhere except S.F. It really depends on what type of scenery you want. Seattle is a dope city, but has the worst traffic in the country..seriously, it does. Portland is fcking gorgeous with outdoor fun (snowboarding, camping, mtn biking, windsurfing, wakeboarding, etc.) keeping people sane. Oh and we have the best weed and coffee in the country. :clap: San Francisco is actually a cool city, but ****ing taxed to live there. L.A. is concrete everywhere, but it is warm, so I like...And Vegas is 2 hours away.

Hope this helps a bit...

Phoenix - Is about to be on and poppin'

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Have you come across a DJ named Josh (Ruckus)

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Yup, met him as soon as he got to town. We've been planning to bang out a few harder tracks in the studio in the near future.

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I know of a lot of people who have moved out here from Madison...maybe the weed?

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Hahaha... yep, there's definitely somewhat of a Madison-Portland connection.

It's good to know that there are 'pockets of resistance' to the house-and-trance vibe of the west coast. Props to you guys pushing techno forward out there, perhaps it's only a matter of time before you're able to convert more of the masses over to the dark side!

:rambo:

here in LA, you gotta hit up the Droid guys, they're the main guys doing techno parties here...............and I must say they're really good parties, i've played a few of them and its always a great night

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Originally Posted by Joseph Isaac

Jimmy Hoffa (the dj not the teamster)

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if it was the teamster, he would be working for Mafia probably again :lol:

btw Droid? this sounds familiar.. I have some mix called "droid - ad non hotel".. any connection? :eh:

and yes.. is Ron D Core still playing there? havent heard anything about himfor ages.. :doh:

Seattle -- Jimmy Hoffa (the dj not the teamster) is doing a weekly techno night. Platinum Records is a decent store. DJ Jakub has techno mixes frequently on the net. Adam Zelt I belive is still making techno.

you can find out more about the techno night (called adults only) at www.nwtekno.com i am out here for a month and just played one of the first ones. small turnout, but cool people.

jerry abstract (from detroit) is also out here. you can find him at www.fixelplix.com

nice city, but techno is (like much of the US) a pretty small affair with a few diehards. :)

also based in LA is heavy industries. www.heavy-industries.net

hi


:lol:

just to give you an idea of whats going on from now till feb :X




Saturday January 15th
Channel.One by Mineral & Incision

detroit.minimal.techno.acid.house.electro

*serving all night*
*old school sweatbox style*

JASPER [Cytrax, Delay, Force inc.]
DECIBEL [Mineral, Automat]
STAN MIN [Incision]
Taka [vibeflow, japan]

10-? | $5 . . 2 for 1 before 11pm | mature crowd
info: 323.960.7990
coming in Feb. Channel.Two feat. DJ Hyperactive!!!



Sunday January 16th
MINIMAL::ELECTRO

Anarexia and Deathstar (Modern Romantics) explore the future and the
past of electro.

Dj Anarexia + Surprise Guests!!
SIXTEEN DAYS LIVE PA

10-2am | $3 | 21+
located: The Parlour Club @ 7702 Santa Monica Blvd, W. Hollywood





NAMM show party madness!
------------------------------------------------------------------>
PAX|ELM presents:
MONOLAKE (Ableton)
January 21st, 2005
with\
[a]pendics.shuffle- Live (orac/kompakt)
Rd- DJ (e.l.m./designed disorder)
Deru- Live (m3erck)

Friday January 21st@ Zip fusion Sushi
744 E 3rd St
downtown Los Angeles
9pm-2am
10$


---------------------------------------------------------------------
NATIVE INSTRUMENTS presents:
THE NI LAB
NI lab – Sat January 22nd
9pm to 4am
$15 cover – no advance tickets

Kaskade
Matt Dear
Telefon Tel Aviv
Richard Devine
Terrestre
DJ Battlecat
The Executives
RD & Trichome
Drumcell (NI, Droidbehavior)
Walton (NI)
Kazell (NI)
leVEL (NI)

Visuals by Scott Pagano

At: The Blue Monkey Bar and Lounge
5521 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028
---------------------------------------------------------------------



Sunday January 23rd
Droidbehavior presents Matthew Dear

Matthew Dear [Ghostly/Spectral, Plus8, Detroit]
Sariah Storm [Terpsichore, LA]
Jasper [Force Inc, Cytrax, Delay, LA]
Kjel [LA]

With Visuals from The Terpsichore Vault

9-2am | FREEEEEEEEEEE | 21+
located: Monroe's @ 8623 Melrose at Huntly
info: http://www.droidbehavior.com | http://www.ghostly.com |
http://www.terpsichoregroup.org




---------------------------------------------------------
Thursday February 3rd
DROIDLIFE @ THE GOOD LIFE

techno.house.minimal.acid

Robin Porter [Immigrant, Shva, LA]
Jonra [Designforms, LA]
+ more tba

10-2am | free b4 11/w rsvp to info@d... $5 after | FULL BAR
FOR 21+
located: Amalfi lounge @ 143 N. La Brea Ave. LA 90036
info: http://www.droidbehavior.com | 323.525.5652



:crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

ooops i actually left out like francois k in late jan and some other shows that are still pending (interface 11 in late feb i hope)

so if youre in LA well you prolly already know the answer :oops:

SD: www.oceanlinerrecords.com, www.sdravers.net


SF: www.defsf.com and make sure to get on their mailing lists

there is a resource page on there that includes contact info for pretty much every techno anything up in the bay area at the moment.

also add forest green and clairity on myspace. lots of minimal, idm and goofy electro parties weekly. not sure how good or bad they are because my experiences are limited but i know they are often and diverse :clap:



i think that sums it up for CA. :lol:

Big ups to Droid...excellent array of talent and i like the NI Lab...dopeness. :clap:

thanks joe. we finally got our venue for interface so it looks FANON FLOWERS ARCHETYPE AND AARON BENNET will be on the bill.
YES!!!!

a black nation reunion of sorts in LA :lol:

so hey north westerners.....so whats up with murat? is he up there again? or is he back on the eastcoast? is he playing alot of shows? that guy moves around alot but if you can record one of his sets. his shit is off the hook!

i heard a few mafia links....who else has dj/live pa sets for download?

well if your thinking about moving to SF there is a good collection of artists in and around the area. The reason why you don't see Techno in the clubs up here is because most techno parties are really underground and for the older rave crowds and are hush hush in a way.

though there are the occasional parties and clubs that go on

Heres a few of the local artists and promoters you might want to search for:


Omniscent Records - Praxis
Resource Records - Chris Jackson
DEFSF - Dj Disconnect

we ourselves do Techno Events and have a forum @:
www.techno-truth.com
www.stilldream.org

and have had Chris, Aaron, Julian, Ant, DDR, Rackit, Sarah FAB and a few others out over the last couple of years.


Best of Luck to ya, hit me up before you come out this way.

I'm a bit out of the loop with SoCal now for techno. Out of the places mentioned, I'd think SF would be the best. The SPAZ, 5lowershop and Otherworld collectives have sounds all across the spectrum and do stuff on the regular.
In Portland, while I lived there for a short stint, the biggest scene seemed to be around House. You'll bump into some kids that are into to techno or harder varieties of music but not so much that you'll hear it in a space on the regular.

hello! i've been AWOL from the board for a while, but can report from seattle that the scene here is...okay.

if you like chin-stroking minimal and glitch, mostly performed with laptops, there's a lot to hear. there is also a lot of appreciation for detroit techno, so people like derrick may play here with some regularity. however, if you want club/hard/dark techno, there is jack sh**. go to vancouver for that.

feb 19 - surgeon in sf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

for northwest events...

http://nwtekno.org/

WESTSIDE

SAN DIEGO minimal and hard techno


www.subnominal.com



we've got a good crew down here and building.

DROID parties in LA

random events in SF

in the last year we've had Stewart Walker, Geoff White, random chicago DJ's, LA peeps, and Alan Oldham

all were pretty good parties.

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Originally Posted by viagratek

i heard a few mafia links....who else has dj/live pa sets for download?

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go here: www.markusalan.com

Dope live pas.

w00t rock on left coast.

props from philly ! - the east coast techno beast ;-)

(lol i just made that up)

So I am the East Coast Techno Brute :doh:

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Originally Posted by SummerOfSam

So I am the East Coast Techno Brute :doh:

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it takes more than 60 inch bicepts to qualify as a brute :cool:


(somehow there mightve been a miscommunication, all in good fun)

Westside.. the tech side biatches.

:lol:

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Originally Posted by Internal Error Records

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SummerOfSam

So I am the East Coast Techno Brute :doh:

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it takes more than 60 inch bicepts to qualify as a brute :cool:


(somehow there mightve been a miscommunication, all in good fun)

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:lol: ;)

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Originally Posted by SummerOfSam

So I am the East Coast Techno Brute :doh:

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i'm only a transplant to the west coast, truth be told...

Well I live almost west coast but not quite. Here in Az there is not techno other than myself really. There are a couple people who play it at times, but I am the main techno support here. Anytime there is a need for the genre, I am the man to bring it. Things used to be different, but right now our scene here is highly over run by D&B and breaks.

However the over running by other genres will cease soon. I have plans in changing things, especially now that there is another heavy hitter here in AZ. Tony and I will be working on a PA very soon!!!!