Golden eras of techno...

[Paul Zykotik]

98-00 for me. I'd always liked techno but knew nothing about it, then a mate of mine started buying it and that gave me a starting point of labels to look for.

It's always exciting getting massively into a new genre as you keep hearing great tune after great tune. The hard looped sound has been imitated many times since that era but has never really been bettered. Tortured, Drumcode, Conform, Synewave, Compound, Planet Rhythm, Primate (yes, even Primate), Zync, the first 3 Intec releases, Missile etc were all putting out some monsters. Got good memories of my Friday ritual of getting paid each week and heading down to Underground Solu'shn to buy a shedload of new tunes.

The most eye-opening (ear-opening?) experience was hearing my first Stay Up Forever record (Secret Hero - Build Up The Pressure). I remember picking it up and thinking I'd give it a shot as I'd heard of the label, and being completely blown away by it. After that I was grabbing every SUF, Smitten, Routemaster I could find. Discovering Cluster was another experience in itself, hard as nails techno and just the sort of stuff I was looking for.

Also discovering the more melodic side of techno - Vince Watson, Bellboy Records were the two standouts for me ("Stunner" on this - http://www.discogs.com/release/31326 - is one of the greatest chilled techno tunes of all time IMO, yet it's gone totally unnoticed) but it was great hearing atmospheric, meloncholic and sometimes euphoric records that weren't cheesy trancefests.

This was all helped by the fact that Edinburgh at that point had a thriving techno scene. It seemed that a whole load of us got into the music (and the associated indulgences) at the same time and as a result there was a real community vibe to it all. Nights like Apex, Pillbox, Lift, Pure, Subtle Logic, Loop (not forgetting Lost / Dogma, although that was slightly later)...every week it was a trip to Calton Road and either The Venue or Studio 24, both grubby hellholes with sweat dripping off the walls, next to no lighting, and a range of people off their trolley, then off to Blackford Quarry at 3am to carry on into the morning. A lot of the time these nights didn't even have big name guests, just local dj's who knew how to make us all dance. Edinburgh being the place that it is, everyone knew everyone and it helped to create the feel of a real community.

It couldn't last of course - people get older, tastes change, you can't cane it every weekend anymore - and I believe Edinburgh's techno scene isn't as thriving as it once was. I look back on those times and can't help grinning though, and that's what matters.