It’s funny what people perceive as ‘Techno’, usually it’s imitated with a 4/4 thud that’s about as appealing as a pain in your left nut. Techno is one of the most misunderstood genres of music, it took me years to realise the difference between techno and house and now there is a huge amount of 4/4 cross genres it’s even more difficult, but I think it’s the core grounded base of people that underpin techno that makes it a timeless style of music that doesn’t relate to fashion or sounds of the moment. Heres a classic example of ‘Mad’ Mike Banks with Hi-Tech Dreams from his ever important imprint Underground Resistance,  set up originally with Jeff Mills.

‘Mad’ Mike remains true to Detroit, the city in which Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson and Juan Atkins first invented what many today  perceive as techno, ‘Mad Mike’ was one of the second generation of techno pioneers to hail from Detroit, along with Jeff Mills and Kenny Larkin, he remains to this day in Detroit, with Detroit musicians, shying almost totally from the limelight and focusing on music, you can catch a rare interview with him in the classic documentary Universal Techno.

The Detroit scene always praised Kraftwerk for their musical achievements and it was from Germany and Europe that techno also took hold most notably with Hardfloor, DJ Hell, Sven Vath and Ellen Allien, the latter started the highly influential B-Pitch control label which still releases some of the greatest electronic music in the world today with Modeselektor/Moderat alongside Ben Klock and Paul Kalkbrenner, check out the  classic of epic proportions of Acperience by Hardfloor. From Germany you can move through France with Laurent Garnier, Francois K and early Daft Punk and into Britain, Autechre represent the Techno ethic without being tied to the scene, but it’s people like Slam and their label Soma, Christian Vogel, Carl Cox and the master Dave Clarke who keep the scene free of bullshit, Clarke’s live sets and productions are, in my opinion, second to none, check out The Wolf by DC.

Techno has a DIY ethic, never have true techno producers sought the limelight of the charts, big money deals and commercial radio shows. The base of techno lies in groove and percussion, fundamentally making people dance with rhythm from drums, something that goes back further than anyone knows and it’s for this reason that techno is a very important genre of music, I don’t think that in ten years time we’ll be looking back at the current crop of electro and saying ‘ wow, they really had an impact on music today’ and why? Well I think, feel free to argue, that electro, hard house, commercial house and trance rely way too heavily on sounds and production techniques of the time, without having any foresight or originality and if your not thinking for yourself your copying others, this means you’ll always be behind, always chasing. I have always believed that music is about thinking for yourself, being creative, original and if your not doing that then I think to an extent you’ve missed the point.

Liam