Techno: The Nuremburg Trials

Anyway you could say that messianism isn't a bad attitude for a music fan to have, much better than the even-handed faux-eclecticism a lot of people pretend to (which a quick look at their record collections would swiftly disprove).

On a serious note though. I don't buy the techno-as-Calvinism thing. Even if you look at the original Detroit producers, you'll find too much joy in Derrick May/Kevin Saunderson records to fit in a true pleasure-denying philosophy. Although certainly there have been some Calvinistic techno records (thinking of some Underground Resistance things, but esp. Plastikman's 'Consumed'). But even puritans like Mills and Surgeon will at times produce pure blissed-out pleasure machines.

Now I'll grant that a lot of techno-producers have an almost puritanical ethic in re. of drugs. And there are indeed pockets of techno fans that are fiercly protective of the purity of techno, but you'll find their type in Garage, Hip-Hop, Punk, Soul, Jazz, etc. I know them personally because most people I know who are into techno are 6 feet tall women, who obviously don't shave their heads. :)

That's what I think, who gives a fux0r.

xoxo

Isn't that a bit like "the only band I like outside of my genre is the band that's trying to sound like my genre?"

Not that I'm Mr. Eclecticism, or anything, but that seems like a pretty patronizing approach to rock music's ability to be great on its own. Unless you're honestly saying that "Rock is Dead" and can only be good when it's drawing on techno ... :)

it ripped off the last 30 years of rock and tried to put a new label on it with a handsome fellow wearing nice trowsers. Autechre did not have a 1960's antecedant. Electronic music in the 1990's was the place to be.

As for the characterization of techno, I think it is misinformed at best, or trolling at worst. I dont think techno is a 5 minute mentality. When you look at the sheer volume of different music that came out across the planet over the 15 years it is amazing. And no, it does not all sound the same, look at the stuff that came out on Sahko in Finland, Basic Channel in Berlin, Transmat in Detroit, Axis in Chi/NYC, Kompakt in Cologne, Communique in Minneapolis, Missle in London, Ifac in Britain, 21/22 Corp in Colombus, Eevolute in Netherlands... No it does not last for 5 minutes, there are gems that are a decade old and have not dated whatsoever. The real, educated techno underground does exist, and it does not forget its history.

Not that I necessarily disagree with the former statement, but the latter... Autechre may not have had many 60s (or pre-60's, for that matter) references (although I thought of four just off the top of my head: Raymond Scott, Morton Subotnick, "Williams Mix", and Louis and Bebe Barron), but they sure as fuck have plenty of 80s ones: Mantronix, Davey DMX, basically any electro record...

I think what Dave was trying to say is that all of what really *mooooooooved* me (maaan) (and I think him as well) in 90s "dance music" (jungle, gabba, garridge) fell into a range somewhere between snooty disdain to outright derision from Detroit-ophiles and their Euro counterparts. When really...has "techno" moved forward all that much? Whenever you're having a revival of something...someone was telling me bout the "electro revival" (Ectomorph, et al) a couple years back and I said somehting to the effect "what revival? where did it go?" Electro has been all around us since the 80s in one form or another. "Techno" is just one mutation of the strand. The only way I would disagree with Dave's post is that proper techno is a music which evolves by degrees...there haven't been any massive, mind- altering shifts of consciousness from that camp in a decade (Basic Channel/Chain Reaction being a notable exception.) Listening to "Strings of Life" who could have predicted "Dred Bass," "We Have Arrived," or "Destiny"? Whereas the stuff that's coming out on the most forward-thinking techno labels (Kompakt for instance) seems more of an obvious descendant.

(And I would still argue that "proper house" has evolved more than "proper techno" over the last two decades, within an even narrower rhythmic framework.)

Ohhh I dunno, so this makes Claude Young and Jeff Mills hip-hop DJ's?

C'mon I move for a mistrial here. Obviously the prosecutor didn't have a clue what he was talking about and only presented false witnesses. Also judge, we will file for damages around 1.56 billion Euro as compensation for the emotional damage done to all techno fans, producers and DJ's :)

Irresistible tangent (like irresistible grace?): these two aren't contradictory, from a Biblical perspective. God may have already chosen an elect, but he also commanded believers to go and preach the gospel. You don't second guess God. My sister's Calvinist husband is the pastor of an "Evangelical Free" denomination.