The thing is...there is plenty of techno out there which goes bang bang bang but doesn't sound like every single release on 200 indistinguishable labels.

Get a techno record with a kick drum...play it in a club...it go boom boom. Doesn't matter if the kick drum is surrounded by deep, abstract atmospheric sounds, innovative percussion programming, whoopass basslines......or just looped with that tribal sample that wotsisname used who sampled it off that other tune on that label by that fella who sampled it off that batacuda thing he found in the second hand store.

Have kick drum, can dance. But techno is so much more than just dance music. Some people have forgotten that...even sadder, some people who've come into techno in the past 5 or 6 years have never been given the opportunity to realise it.

Nobody's saying that the dance element should be removed....it's the crap element that causes problems. Track after track after track of the saaaaaaaaaame thing. Some artists :? are taking the piss!! Why release 20 records that sound the same, have the same samples in them, have the same breakdowns...come on...DO SOMETHING for f u c ks sake.

That shit is easy. Techno (and yes I am going to say words like "should") should be challenging. It should be innovative, it should invoke new experiences. Yeah, jumping up and down to a new funky drum loop can be fun for about 2 seconds, but how about some mental stimulation?



See this is the problem I have when people go on about constantly being experimental and innovative. It's all well and good to be both these things, and I love hearing something new, but a lot of people do just want to listen to music that makes them jump up and down and have a good time, tunes that work for the body and not for the mind. Does this make the techno they listen to any less valid?
No it doesn't make it less valid, it makes it not techno. Techno is and always has been about innovation and imagination as well as being dance music. That stuff is just "hard dance music" masquerading as techno as far as I'm concerned.

People are far too accepting...they get into this sound that their parents hate and makes them jump up and down and fist the air cos it's sooooo bangin' but it not taking them anywhere and not showing them anything. I honestly think that if you got half the people who swear by that loopy drum stuff and played them a proper (DANCEY) abstract techno set they'd huddle in the corner pissing their pants.

To relate it all back to the thread (as this may just as easily have gone into the "issues in techno" thread)...Prime started out great, pushing new artists and new techno sounds...but the problem is that once the formula was realised it was put into overdrive and over the years the genre has become so badly watered down to the point where quite probably the majority of people who call themselves techno heads, and even techno DJs, have hardly ever heard any decent techno. Primate the label has chucked out so many records that were headed straight for the bin...the sad thing being that those conditioned into it thought they were great and bought the f u c kers up like ants on honey.

Now...I can see the responses coming..."if people enjoy it what's the problem?", "how can you say it's rubbish if so many people like it"...but I believe that it's the responsibility of producers, DJs and even distributors to strive to maintain the quality of techno - remember that most people who are involved in techno don't do it for the money, they do it for the love...but this degradation of an artform has led to a proliferation of people who've seen that if you follow an easy formula and kiss the right arses, you can make bucks and get people talking about you. That sucks...

It sucks to see ideals go down the pan cos people need to keep the money coming in. I accept that above all other elements in the process, a distributor is a BUSINESS...but take a look at the roster...how much stuff coming out of the two or three main distros in the UK is actually interesting or innovative. 2 or 3 token "experimental" labels each, countless tribal loop clone labels. [stimpy voice]waaaaaah[/stimpy voice].

There are distros that are pushing the good shit.

I do have a lot of respect for Prime, don't get me wrong, but I am not blind to the way they have diluted and essentially damaged techno. Try going to them now with an idea for a new label that's gonna be a bit left of centre without any Beyer or Marco Bailey remixes...they'll turn you away cos it won't sell like it used to. Well...who helped create the market in which innovative music doesn't sell anymore? You guessed it....

rant over.