Golden eras of techno...

[wrong]

Inspired by the other thread about if techno will ever be as interesting as 8 years ago, i thought it might be interesting to hear from people their differing perspectives on the high points over the years.. when ground was/is being broken and by whom... i know techno is all about the future blah blah but i'm in a nostalgic mood .. so here's mine..

1995 -1996/7

Club UK in wandsworth was on fire , with ALL the big techno guns from around the world playing alongside each other every friday night...

Green Velvet released "Leave my body" http://www.discogs.com/release/1616 and RELIEF records in general were churning out tonnes of stuff from GV and Paul Johnson among others which was to influence so many people..

Hard techno was blessed by Neil Landstrumm releasing his "Brown by August" LP that just bashed and boshed with the rawest and most untamed of energy, not forgetting his 3 classic ep's .. all on peacefrog

Mills began his 'purpose maker' label that spawned a whole wave of producers trying to imitate the 'tribal loopy sound'

Edingburgh's Sativae and Brighton's Mosquito labels were both firing on all cylinders.. putting out maverick hard, twisted, tricky techno that also spawned a scene and some would argue a sound that has never been bettered.. Mosquito was even running a regular night freekin the frame at 'the end' club in london

Druncode 001 was released following on from an ep on Planet rhythm which at the time, was also something new and exciting.. "yeah.. they're from sweden apparently!!" The rest.. we all know

DBX aka Dan Bell and XTrak aka Todd Sines had already released all their greatest works a year or two previously, but this was the time i discovered them, same with Planetary Assault systems (slater)

Dance Mania were doing it proper and without them, the music of a lot of people would sound very different today

Fat Cat record shop in London.. Tag, Chocis, Trax, Quaff.. You could go to soho and spend literally ALL day browsing in about 10 independent record shops catering for techno and house

London's squat party scene was in full flourish with mental parties in exciting venues, and wicked rigs with strong musical beliefs and spirit... Bedlam, Virus, Jiba, Immersion, Toe to Head... great times

The main thing though, was that it was all happening together and at once, there weren't the divides and snobbery that you get now... Jam and Spoon djing alongside Jeff Mills, Dave the Drummer and Si Begg both releasing on Eukatech
Buying a Paul Johnson record on relief, a Mode 4 record on Soma and a totally random record... like this: http://www.discogs.com/release/122174 (Which is a ****ING MONSTER by the way - I dare someone to buy it!) And there wouldn't be the : oh, that ones a chicago house record, thats detroit techno and thats european mental shit... it was ALL TECHNO

FORKLIFT
RED1 + 2
MAGNEZE
I could go on for ever.... but i won't, even though i know i've missed out loads

Everybody likes and feels different stuff, one person's golden age is another's hiatus

So when was the 'Golden era of techno' for you and why?