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?

[rhythmtech]

1996/97

was going out to a punk and ska club in dublin (fusion) - you'll remember it jerome (derek f was resident). at the time there was some techno getting played at the end of the night.

eventually more and more techno was creeping its way in - london acid city, neurodancer etc. all london acid and german stuff.

every saturday for 3 years you were guaranteed a club full of crusties and punks losing it to an hour or two of ska and punk followed by a local dj (usually derek or myself or some others) and then a fairly decent headline (liberators, henry, varella, carola)

good times.

music wise i was discovering the london sound, brain recordings, planet rhythm, drumcodes, red series etc

[doc12inch]

if i remember right my best times were 1999 - 2001/2 (i think)

going to subway city for hog and also the jam

seeing paul damage play last set 5-6 at hog and people standing there holding there ears because it was so fecking loud UNT harsh


good times!!

[DVNT]

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?

MORE MORE MORE. Tell me more. I loves reading shit like this. :)

[snooch]

For me it was 97-2001 with all the harder stuff coming out then. Fine Audio, Stigmata, Compressed, Planet Rhythym, Colours, Drum Code and so on. Loved that era and it's a good chunk of what I still play.

[clubsynthetic]

2002 with stuff like "bugmod" by speedy j and "year of reflection" by henrik b and adam beyer. used to cain some of marco carola's "question" series as well.

[djfilthmonger]

2000 is abt when i first start getting into techno, listening to umek live @ i love techno 2001 , Chris liberator trust da dj 01, drum codes , recycled loops, tortured records, adam beyer and henrik B, rock da discotheque, Billy nasty torture chamber, prime, maurio picotto and ricardo ferri(prime and alchemy).
pounding grooves,speedy j - krec c, bugmod , Loudboxer(CD)
alot sven vath
thats the kinda of things i got into at the start.

The forum Waterford
Acts like neck snapper and billy nasty, dave clarke , umek, coming to waterford

Necksnapper are 2 lads from waterford they have gone minimal , but by god they use to bang it out harder than billy nasty and they were the support.

[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.

[BDC]

For me...the old school bleep type techno of 1992-93 old jeff mills stuff....rotterdam stuff as well......when sounds were fresh....everything was so new....now everything is cookie cutter for the most part....the best direction techno had was when it had no direction....IMO


With that said...production wise....techno will always push the envelope...keeping it at the fore front of EDM over other genres that havent evolved much over the past 15 - 20 years....

[DannyBlack]

There are 5 mixes that changed the way I view electronic music. Chris Liberators "Walk the dog", D.A.V.E the drummer @ Terror networks, Thomas Krome @ (can't remember- pure filth?), Dave Clarke "World service 1" and It's time to Gabber, by anon. So I guess my techno buzz started around 2002/3.

I love Techno.

[Jay Pace]

For as long as I've been into techno (99) there have always been people complaining that it was so much better "back in the day". Had the same problem with hardcore as well. Arsecandles to the lot of them. Got to see the rise and fall of jungle at least...

The sense of having always "just missed out" on the golden age pissed me off, until I realised it didn't really exist in the way I thought it did. Utterly brilliant that people are now referring to 99 as a golden age...

Events and things that stood out for me - jeff mills at the lighthouse around 2000 was incredible. Had never heard anything like it. Every jeff mills set I've heard since has been pretty much the same, but meh, when he nails it he nails it.

First Sonar in 2003 was amazing - seeing techno as the lynchpin of a massive electronic media and music festival just reinforced my view that techno was the lifeblood of the electronic scene.

I love it all just as much now though. Still can get blown away by Mills hammering a 909 if the setting is right, and still get goosebumps from some of the detroit stuff coming out.

But personally I'm having more fun with music now than ever. Scene seems smaller, friendlier and more informal than a decade ago, and I enjoy it on different level. Might be due to age, or maybe just the way the scene has evolved but I'm dead happy with the way things are now.

[AcidTrash]

I miss events where people broke a sweat.

[Paul Zykotik]

The sense of having always "just missed out" on the golden age pissed me off, until I realised it didn't really exist in the way I thought it did. Utterly brilliant that people are now referring to 99 as a golden age...

Personal thing though isn't it. For me, that was a golden age. Pretty much anyone's golden age will be when they started getting heavily into the music and going out shitloads (and often getting trollied into the bargain).

I do believe though that the original 88/89 vibe would have stood out a mile from the golden ages that the rest of us have experienced, simply because it was something so completely new and out of the blue.

[DannyBlack]

To be honest, my golden age is now. Techno in the present means more to me than anything ever has. My time is now and I f*cking love it.

[djfilthmonger]

There are 5 mixes that changed the way I view electronic music. Chris Liberators "Walk the dog", D.A.V.E the drummer @ Terror networks, Thomas Krome @ (can't remember- pure filth?), Dave Clarke "World service 1" and It's time to Gabber, by anon. So I guess my techno buzz started around 2002/3.

I love Techno.

Sounds like the cd collection we brought to letterkenny on that 8 hr bus journey a few years back, I still have that thomas krome must route it out.

wat abt fuse presents dave clarke?
wat a cd

[DannyBlack]

Sounds like the cd collection we brought to letterkenny on that 8 hr bus journey a few years back, I still have that thomas krome must route it out.

wat abt fuse presents dave clarke?
wat a cd

Yeah man, thats exactly it! The same Journey we ate an obnoxious amount of Morocan black :lol:

[BDC]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObeiW...eature=related


This shit looked F-R-E-S-H!!!!!!!



I must have been a senior in Highschool....still wish I was there....

[Athar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObeiW...eature=related


This shit looked F-R-E-S-H!!!!!!!



I must have been a senior in Highschool....still wish I was there....

damn right!
just listening the track around 8:30 - mental tune!
the track is called "morning after" and its from 87 or 88 i think
awesome!

[BranLanen]

In the north of Spain there was a golden era (1998-2000) with so many DJs playing UK techno from labels as Surface, Downwards, Meta, Dynamic Tension, Hardgroove, Theory.... also some old Italian techno (previous to filtered italian techno that arrived later) mainly from Carola, Parisio aka Gaetek. And finally some Swedish techno mainly Beyer, Hardcell....etc
I remember Oscar Mulero playing this music, maybe you can find some mixtapes on the net if you can't belive it :D

[module]

everyone has their own 'golden period' in techno... ESPECIALLY if ya liked the jack n jills innit ;)

imo, techno has moved up n down n left n right n forwards n back in the time i spent with it.. from around 92/3 when i was listening to the music, but not going to the clubs, it was jus music that i needed.. having been on NIN & PWEI & such, i found techno thru remixes & a store in belfast called Dr Roberts (rip.. best store in the world it was) where i shopped from i was 12 (into metal & rock) thru to i was about 22 (techno, techno and.. techno)


its jus phases.. everyone hated tribal.. then it was all about mnml.. ten schranz bashing.. now mnml bashing.. wonk has been invented by some tool & the media (and consumers) have caused more boxing of genre & sub-genre than is healthy...

either way.. techno will NEVER die no matter what grime, house, dnb or hip hop djs say... its the only genre that hasnt went Top 10... yet.. careful Hawtin ;)




as for snobbery... ever seen 2 jazz fans argue about who was the best free styler lol