Just read this in the Cluster thread and thought it should be made into a post of its own. I'd love to hear your thoughts...

Having just returned to the UK from Germany after 2 years, some things are glaringly obvious and this includes what my mates in the UK say(producers, DJs, scene bods etc etc):

The uk techno RECORDS market is dying primarily because people don't buy as much anymore.

The London techno scene just degraded itself into a crack party for students.

As with every 'going concern', no one (London techno people) tought that the bottom would fall out and just sat back and actually did not play acid techno (with the exception of Chris and a few others).

Record shops just do not want to stock up on the London techno stuff and acid in particular - because there really isn't that vibe that was created through the squat parties...and I don't just mean Lee Techtonic and Insanity either

The German / European / Hard scene just happened to be quite teutonic and lucky...that they have got a lot of younger punters around, quite mobile and able to go to parties outside of the borders - we need to use some poxy Eurostar / Easyjet to get out of our little island

The fact that a lot of labels might be considering a new style is because this style indeed has some energy in it that (in my opinion) the commercial and non-commercial hard house scene just sucked away - Kinetec before the new incarnation was a culprit - I don't think Mark cared much about supporting one scene

UK Distributors are more keen to import and sell here than source talent here and distribute outside

Eventually, it comes down to one thing I suppose...just like every other style that has evolved, say in London, with the Schoom -> Rave -> Hardcore -> Club UK -> blah blah...we will always be influenced by others outside and evolve...otherwise Stay Up Forever will be releasing with Choci's Choons. Also, even classic acid labels like routemaster have gone through their own journeys...

Coming after a while to the UK / London scene, it seems like people are more interested in shoving loads of powder in small 'intimate' posey vocal house parties - middle class schtik!

Look at all our Label owner DJs...they all play outside, different 'firms' colonise certain parts of the world and sell their own records...gone are the days when we sold our style, city and country in general

See what 9 years of comfortable New Labour life has done for us all...I say bring back the tories - watch the squat parties spark up the rebellious London / UK scene that made us world famous...it ain't them mate...it's us...we are the procrastinators

Note to self: must go and book flights to all the wicked Teknival parties that will be happening Euro wide while our councils sell off Hackney Marshes etc to property developers so we can all buy houses and have house parties and play that once-famous style of music called Acid Techno to our friends and reminisce
Your thoughts?

Valid points or not?