State of "techno"

[Barfunkel]

I don't mind trancey arpeggios as such. The problem is that they usually aren't very good trancey arpeggios. Really weak stuff compared to actual golden era trance.

[dubdub]

I don't mind trancey arpeggios as such. The problem is that they usually aren't very good trancey arpeggios. Really weak stuff compared to actual golden era trance.

Ya. I spent my early teens listening to supersaw trance. None of these guys are any decent at writing trance; if you have zero understanding of melody or harmony at least stick to bleep bloop noise techno, jesus christ. I Hate Models is especially bad at this, some of his stuff literally sounds like something a preschooler would mash together on the keyboard.

And that's essentially it. The new generation doesn't want to hear Marcel Dettmann play yet another 2010s Berghain mainfloor set that sounds the same all the time. They want to listen to something fresh, and of course after a period of slow, hypnotic techno being prevalant this has to be fast and cheesy music. They are discovering music that to some of you may be old news but to them it's new and exciting because they missed it when they were younger (including myself; I was around 12 years old when a lot of the stuff I play these days came out and clubs/dance music were out of reach to me.) And of course they will generate their own interpretation of it with even more over-the-top sound design and grooves.

But this is kind of a ridiculous dichotomy, no? You can make techno that is neither no melody ever dark drone stuff or rehashed euro hard trance. Also, despite the Berghain stereotype, Dettmann is a pretty damn flexible DJ that always changes up his style a bit.

Also, in Berlin at least, techno started getting harder and faster around 2014-2015 already; at Berghain, people already started approaching 133-135 BPM+ at peaktime pretty frequently, which had been unusual previously. That main era of that slow atmo Sandwell District / Prologue type stuff was already fading back then (and both labels closed down around that time). Me and my friends were already complaining about techno getting too fast and hard again a couple of years ago, it's not a new trend at all, it's just getting to the point where it's comical now with people playing and making stuff that sounds like 2002-2004 overcompressed jackhammer Schranz. Dark/industrial techno releases have been getting faster for years. In 2020 it would be way more radical and interesting to make some 124 BPM techno again.

[dubdub]

From my memory, this whole fast & hard trend started around 2015, when suddenly everyone was trying to sound like Regis and early Downwards, with MORD especially pushing that stuff.

And then I think Dax J really pioneered this whole schranzy euro sound, when these came out on Dax Js label and everyone started canning it, me and my friends were already like oh no, techno is jumping the shark with cheesy rave bullshit and that was FOUR years ago. I also remember people starting to """"ironically"""" playing eurodance edits at Berghain around 2016.

https://www.discogs.com/Stranger-Highes ... 044382?ev=

https://www.discogs.com/Dax-J-The-Invis ... 7986?ev=rr

And then crap like this from 2017:

https://www.discogs.com/I-Hate-Models-T ... e/10530622

So what these kids are doing isn't actually very fresh at all.

And Fwiw I like D. Dan and Stef Mendesis a lot but again, raw 90s / early 2000s oriented stuff has been the trend for years.

[over9000]

The funny thing is, some of those guys (Shlomo & Hectore Oaks) used to make decent deep stuff maybe 5 years ago. Talk about trend whores. Kinda like 2006-2007 when all the guys that were making 140 BPM hard techno suddenly went 123 bpm bling blong mnml.

the one that really hurts for me is AnD

their output from a few years ago was awesome. raw, lots of character, plenty of experimenting.

then all of a sudden it's all arpeggiated trance leads, didn't see that coming, highly disappointing

Totally! I was really suprised there too.
And i liked oaks in the past too.
But this possesion ep series is just soo crap..

[[wesellboxes]]

Nothing says 2020 more than a shit trance revival

[Belka]

saying i hate models sounds like preschool child music is the worst comparison i ever read ... and again everyone is circle jerking about the super awesome mega great 90s ... what an abomination of a thread.

[mainst09]

saying i hate models sounds like preschool child music is the worst comparison i ever read ... and again everyone is circle jerking about the super awesome mega great 90s ... what an abomination of a thread.

Okay, if you dont like its your problem but i do know why you say this thread is an abomination...

[mainst09]

I dont understand how just people "jump the shark" so quickly. Well i do know they want quick money and fame but in the end it will give them nothing since its all about trends. When it ends not everyone has the capability of switching genres like that.

You either stick to your craft and evolve it or honestly there is no point. The revival of trance sounds is just bullshit because it doesnt bring anything new to the table, are we just gonna keep revolving around the same loop always? Our world is coming to an end and this is what we do? cheap music?

With the new digital sources of music we have so much to learn and experiment and yet we just keep using the old same boring sounds.(I am guilty on this too).

And this new wave of Hard music just to satisfy "your" needs of shitty hard drugs like GHB and whatever people like now is just an excuse to get fucked up.

This guy who Ilegally lived some months in my apartment(shared apartment) until the end of february who basically terrorized my life with this cheap ass music is one of those who just jumped the shark. He was and still is a rapper, knew nothing about electronic music until he found out all that cheap Porc trax and whatever fake industrial music bought one of those traktor mixer like 1 month after discovering electronic music, started "djing" and a few months after being evicted from my apartment i see some insta stories of him playing at parties with actually lots of people (and during corona lol). Not to say the least the he moved to berlin after being evicted.

This is my point nowadays everyone can do everything, just buy a shitty usb mixer buy some fake ass hard industrial music with trance synths and boom youre done. also buy and sell lots of drugs and dress really dark clothes.


PS: I know its not industrial music, because i know its not the real industrial thats why i called it Fake ass. Also no problem on using dark clothes its just some people think that will make somewhat of a difference.

[Lost to the Void]

That's why I have totally detached from this shit.
It's pop-scene trend chasing Instagram music.
I keep it underground. Now people shit on that term.
For me it means doing that which is not being done in the mainstream, with passion and integrity.

Techno has become so big it IS the mainstream now. So all this I Hate Models shite, Oakes or whatever, I'd expect to hear that in a fucking Abercrombie and Fitch store. I do t hear any original ideas. It's just stuff to churn out to keep the bodies and the money moving.
It is what it is, commercial, regurgitated (and not even regurgitating the good trance stuff of that era, just the commercial shite) dance music. Let it do what it does.
It's a separate thing now.


Honestly there is better and cooler stuff we can discuss here, in techno and in electronic music generally. There is good honest music out there, with truth and passion and original ideas.

I know, I just said that.
No I'm not going soft, I'm guilty of shaking my fist at that shit.
But I think I turned a corner with it all during this pandemic.
The fact there are less/no gigs. It's really shown up those who do it because they are IN IT and love it, from the salesmen.

And there was this run of desperate selling out. It was so obvious.

And then I just realised, this has nothing to do with me at all, I don't associate with anyone like that, I don't work with anyone like that, and I don't follow/listen to anyone like that, and I don't make music for people Iike that. So why give a fuck? I don't generally care about pop music and never have, and I should look at this as just the same.

[jordanneke]

I hate to admit something.

I don't listen to techno at all anymore. I listen aside from old Jungle raves, I listen to quite a lot of the weird stuff on Rinse. J Kenzo's monthly show is pretty good. Covering a lot of experimental bass music.

I'm sorry to say, techno is too stale for me. The regurgitated ideas, the lameness.

Anyway let's focus on the positives. Maybe some of you may like J Kenzo's stuff too?

[mainst09]

That's why I have totally detached from this shit.
It's pop-scene trend chasing Instagram music.
I keep it underground. Now people shit on that term.
For me it means doing that which is not being done in the mainstream, with passion and integrity.

Techno has become so big it IS the mainstream now. So all this I Hate Models shite, Oakes or whatever, I'd expect to hear that in a fucking Abercrombie and Fitch store. I do t hear any original ideas. It's just stuff to churn out to keep the bodies and the money moving.
It is what it is, commercial, regurgitated (and not even regurgitating the good trance stuff of that era, just the commercial shite) dance music. Let it do what it does.
It's a separate thing now.


Honestly there is better and cooler stuff we can discuss here, in techno and in electronic music generally. There is good honest music out there, with truth and passion and original ideas.

I know, I just said that.
No I'm not going soft, I'm guilty of shaking my fist at that shit.
But I think I turned a corner with it all during this pandemic.
The fact there are less/no gigs. It's really shown up those who do it because they are IN IT and love it, from the salesmen.

And there was this run of desperate selling out. It was so obvious.

And then I just realised, this has nothing to do with me at all, I don't associate with anyone like that, I don't work with anyone like that, and I don't follow/listen to anyone like that, and I don't make music for people Iike that. So why give a fuck? I don't generally care about pop music and never have, and I should look at this as just the same.

I'm exactly at that point steve. I know i was the OP of this topic but in the end i just want to get free from all this bullshit. I haven't made proper music in like 2 years and when i did lets say a remix or whatever after a while i actually feel ashamed of what i did, i have a remix coming out per example and to be honest i don't even like it anymore at all and i get this feeling of "why did I even do this?". I'm sick of releasing music for whatever reason instead of doing it just for me, being afraid of putting different stuff out there because someone might not appreciate it, hell it made me afraid of actually trying new things in music which is what electronic music is all about.

This might sound bad but i'm actually in one way happy that this covid shit hit the clubs like it did because then all this gigs bullshit actually took a beating. As you said now thats when you see who are the real artists or musicians.

[mainst09]

I hate to admit something.

I don't listen to techno at all anymore. I listen aside from old Jungle raves, I listen to quite a lot of the weird stuff on Rinse. J Kenzo's monthly show is pretty good. Covering a lot of experimental bass music.

I'm sorry to say, techno is too stale for me. The regurgitated ideas, the lameness.

Anyway let's focus on the positives. Maybe some of you may like J Kenzo's stuff too?

Well id love to hear some new proper shit, i havent listened to electronic music tbh. Ive been focusing on grime and memphis rap mostly

[over9000]

The funny thing is, some of those guys (Shlomo & Hectore Oaks) used to make decent deep stuff maybe 5 years ago. Talk about trend whores. Kinda like 2006-2007 when all the guys that were making 140 BPM hard techno suddenly went 123 bpm bling blong mnml.

the one that really hurts for me is AnD

their output from a few years ago was awesome. raw, lots of character, plenty of experimenting.

then all of a sudden it's all arpeggiated trance leads, didn't see that coming, highly disappointing

Totally! I was really suprised there too.
And i liked oaks in the past too.
But this possesion ep series is just soo crap..

[Alethylene]

As for me I prefer this kind of techno, it is more dancefloor oriented, it have its own purpose in sets, you can easily mix it with early Regis, Glenn Wilson and so on. Yes it's not same if we are talking about percussion and groove, but still good as a tool, and of course energy and drive. Can't say that it can be a gateway for newbies, right now techno for a lot of people just for fun, no interest in culture, how it developed, that early dumbcode had great releases, even why tresor called tresor.
I'm okay with hypnotic stuff, a lot of great producers, but for the last year or two i really get bored with this 125-135 bpm, reverb into reverb into delay washed rimshots(or any other woody shit sample), sleepy soundscapes and so on. And yes here in Prague almost everyone playing this type of techno, and i hate this pretentious kids in k-holes who are main audience in clubs.
My friend who is playing this kinda "serious" techno hating me that i prefer stuff like this (anyway last Shifted release is great).

Overall after this it will be a really fast tekkkkknnnoo something like 160-200bpm, but i can't understand it, completely undanceble.

No please dont say that this is not dancefloor oriented music this is drug oriented music simple as that. All techno is dancefloor oriented music and even more saying you can easily mix it with regis and glenn wilson... what on earth are you talking about?!?!?!?

ok, i've listened to this "fresh" possession EP as i should, fuck it's really shitiest shit that i heard in last few months or maybe years. I can't believe that it is mastered by Heckmanns studio, a lot of tracks sounding really bad, not this lo-fi bad, kind of that i have some wool in my ears and staying on dancefloor with poor acoustics where bass resonates as fuck. Anetha track sound like some crappy full-on psytrance, and Tryms track with this hook & melody should be play only on Tomorrowland mainstage. Seems that possession giving them really hi-quality coke, cause there is one possibility to produce such bad tracks - only on stimulators

[dubdub]

I hate to admit something.

I don't listen to techno at all anymore. I listen aside from old Jungle raves, I listen to quite a lot of the weird stuff on Rinse. J Kenzo's monthly show is pretty good. Covering a lot of experimental bass music.

I'm sorry to say, techno is too stale for me. The regurgitated ideas, the lameness.

Anyway let's focus on the positives. Maybe some of you may like J Kenzo's stuff too?

I don't love a lot of that new UK bass stuff but it does seem to be in a good place. Jungle revival is doing pretty good aswell. Lots of great house records. Ambient & modern classical scene is amazing right now. It seems to really just be techno that's in a shit place, although there are some labels that are still dependable at putting out solid stuff like Klockworks, Indigo Aera/Aex, Tresor, Ilian Tape and Key Vinyl. Artist wise I think Barker, Blawan, Sleeparchive, Neva, Stef Mendesis, Fadi Mohem, Kaap, Skee Mask, Andrea, Stenny among others are doing interesting things.

[Mslwte]

The funny thing is, some of those guys (Shlomo & Hectore Oaks) used to make decent deep stuff maybe 5 years ago. Talk about trend whores. Kinda like 2006-2007 when all the guys that were making 140 BPM hard techno suddenly went 123 bpm bling blong mnml.

the one that really hurts for me is AnD

their output from a few years ago was awesome. raw, lots of character, plenty of experimenting.

then all of a sudden it's all arpeggiated trance leads, didn't see that coming, highly disappointing

Yeah agreed. I was really into the AnD sound of a few years ago. Recently I heard them playing hard trance hard house type music and was a bit gutted they they are following that trend. But this is the music scene. It happens all time so isn't that much of a surprise.

[speen]

I really like Deniro's output: https://soundcloud.com/deniro1985

It's not something new, but it's consistently good and a sound you don't hear much these days.. also a great dj.

[over9000]

yeah deniro is cool
i also like stef mendesidis, rene wise, peter van hoesen, Mike Davis, CNCPT, Shifted (he still does good stuff imo), Svarog, Sev Dah, desroi, anthony linell

Iam getting back into tribal deeptechno too: forest on stasys, danza nativa (label), hypnus (label), luigi tozzi, dino sabatini, feral, valentino mora, atis, ymir, Shaded Explorer

also the old masters Steve Bicknell, Planetary Assault Systems, and even Robert Hood drop a good track one in a while, but their sound has become a pastiche of itself most of the time

i think theres alot of great music these days, you just have to dig a bit deeper then the obvious trendy stuff

[buffered]

Iam getting back into tribal deeptechno too: forest on stasys, danza nativa (label), hypnus (label), luigi tozzi, dino sabatini, feral, valentino mora, atis, ymir, Shaded Explorer

Dino Sabatini is so good. Glad you mentioned him. Shaman's Paths is an amazing record. His Modern Heads material also great.

[over9000]

And i forgot cassegrain, oscar mulero, pris, tensal