State of "techno"

[Críoch]

Haven't been excited by pure techno for a long time.. occasional tracks definitely.. but a lot is quite formulaic & over produced. I've probably always had an open mind & eclectic taste when it comes to music & like hearing something distinct & inventive. Though techno is in my DNA, I really only enjoy listening to it in mixes where the DJ knows their shit & juggles styles a little.

I suppose I'll only enjoy something when its at the centre of that personal venn diagram, otherwise I become critical & ignore / hate it.

This is probably my amazing superpower.

[Amøbe]

Here is a perspective from, where this trend supposedly started (Copenhagen 140 bpm resident advisor article).

So when I moved to Copenhagen in 2012, there were this strange stale feeling around the techno scene. Besides Ctrls it felt like all techno was trying to merge with tech house (and have an address in Berlin). The fast forward folks (around 2014-15 I think) didn't really come from the club scene - they came out of the punk and noise scene, so it made sense that their focus was just fast beats and melodies you could latch onto instead of some polymetric bell patterns that floated around. The noise scene is often misrepresented, but that is actually a huge part of the first wave of new producers in that scene - for example Schacke (who made meme-track of the year, with Kisloty People) has produced a lot of really strange tracks and some interesting soundtracks for experimental pornography.

I would also like to take Oaks in defense. There is a lot of talk about him being a trendjumper. He was connected with the scene almost from the beginning. The Fast Forward scene moved outside of Copenhagen in two movements. First of all Courtesy began playing more internationally, and Marcel Dettmann began playing Rune Bagge a lot (who funny enough is the guy that said Dettmann played the same set in Copenhagen every year, and that was boring). The second thing that happened was that a friendship got established with Herrensauna in Berlin, and they threw parties back and forth between Berlin and Copenhagen. Oaks played a lot at these parties, so it made sense that he began moving towards the aesthetic of the new producers (I think they are friends to this day).

My experience of that sound was that it was just really refreshing to hear something that sounded different than what was playing everywhere! The parties were really fun (and I miss them so bad during Covid), but I honestly have begun to get a bit tired with it. There are some of the artists that are really cool, but that has more to do with them being great musicians than the style they play. Total Funeral, Schacke, and Rune Bagge all create magnificent tracks! And lately Code Walk (which has a strange flirt with some drum n bass or something) has proven that fast beats and melodies still can work wonders... I Hate Model has however thoroughly proven that it can also sound dull and uninspired as hell.

I like my techno fast but also groovey. I hope it won't go into mnml klink klonk again, but I would love for my local scene to focus a bit more on the grooving side of things!

[over9000]

Totally agree amobe the copenhagen sound was what started this trend. And as with all trends there was a need to fill that certain gap in the aesthtetic landscape.
I love Schacke and Rune Bagge they are great producers and i still play their tracks often.
Oaks was better in the past imo

I hate models always sucked though haha
Also in this new rave / trancy scene there are good musicians like julian muller or Twan.
I also like the guys from paris airod, makornik.

Anyway i also think the trendy sound has become obsolete and something new will come along.
And the good tunes full of rawness and soul are always out there you just have to find them

[Shift_24]

I agree with all of you. What disappoints me the most about this trend is the low end. I can't stand those dry kicks with almost no bassline (at least in oaks stuff)

[Lost to the Void]

Anyway i also think the trendy sound has become obsolete and something new will come along.
And the good tunes full of rawness and soul are always out there you just have to find them

That`s the thing, the underground exists and persists despite all this shit. Lots of good stuff out there.

[chava]

I agree with all of you. What disappoints me the most about this trend is the low end. I can't stand those dry kicks with almost no bassline (at least in oaks stuff)

A lot of these producers began in either the noise/"avantgarde"-scene or in some cases the hardtek/trance scene = no sense of rhythm at all. You could might as well listen to hardstyle.

[Amøbe]

I used to not care too much about this trend (I somehow was able to avoid the more extreme version of it). Last night a friend of mine dragged me along to see Rebekah... that was basically hardstyle! I have heard stuff from her that is quite atmospheric and gloomy, but that was not the case last night. All the kick drums were like absurd in their click-layer, sounding like pistols or metal pipes being dropped on the floor, and then the beat was so fast that the only other element was a constant 16th-note hi-hat layer... admittedly it was a little bit fun in the beginning, but it served none of the purpose of what club music can do - intensity without inducing trance.

I really need people to look more towards Detroit again.

EDIT: And it's not to shit on Rebekah per se - I assume she's part of a larger trend. There were lots of coked up people, who seemed to like it.

[chava]

I used to not care too much about this trend (I somehow was able to avoid the more extreme version of it). Last night a friend of mine dragged me along to see Rebekah... that was basically hardstyle! I have heard stuff from her that is quite atmospheric and gloomy, but that was not the case last night. All the kick drums were like absurd in their click-layer, sounding like pistols or metal pipes being dropped on the floor, and then the beat was so fast that the only other element was a constant 16th-note hi-hat layer... admittedly it was a little bit fun in the beginning, but it served none of the purpose of what club music can do - intensity without inducing trance.

I really need people to look more towards Detroit again.

EDIT: And it's not to shit on Rebekah per se - I assume she's part of a larger trend. There were lots of coked up people, who seemed to like it.

Club music has different purposes. In the 90s I couldn't understand Gabber or Hardcore either. I just try to ignore this stuff, but it is really everywhere. There will be a backlash/collapse soon, as there were with the "Schranz" stuff in the earlier 00s.

[Amøbe]

I used to not care too much about this trend (I somehow was able to avoid the more extreme version of it). Last night a friend of mine dragged me along to see Rebekah... that was basically hardstyle! I have heard stuff from her that is quite atmospheric and gloomy, but that was not the case last night. All the kick drums were like absurd in their click-layer, sounding like pistols or metal pipes being dropped on the floor, and then the beat was so fast that the only other element was a constant 16th-note hi-hat layer... admittedly it was a little bit fun in the beginning, but it served none of the purpose of what club music can do - intensity without inducing trance.

I really need people to look more towards Detroit again.

EDIT: And it's not to shit on Rebekah per se - I assume she's part of a larger trend. There were lots of coked up people, who seemed to like it.

Club music has different purposes. In the 90s I couldn't understand Gabber or Hardcore either. I just try to ignore this stuff, but it is really everywhere. There will be a backlash/collapse soon, as there were with the "Schranz" stuff in the earlier 00s.

Hehe any day now - I just hope it doesn't fall into slo-mo clickity clack mnml again... 95 % of that era was impressively boring!

[Lost to the Void]

I used to not care too much about this trend (I somehow was able to avoid the more extreme version of it). Last night a friend of mine dragged me along to see Rebekah... that was basically hardstyle! I have heard stuff from her that is quite atmospheric and gloomy, but that was not the case last night. All the kick drums were like absurd in their click-layer, sounding like pistols or metal pipes being dropped on the floor, and then the beat was so fast that the only other element was a constant 16th-note hi-hat layer... admittedly it was a little bit fun in the beginning, but it served none of the purpose of what club music can do - intensity without inducing trance.

I really need people to look more towards Detroit again.

EDIT: And it's not to shit on Rebekah per se - I assume she's part of a larger trend. There were lots of coked up people, who seemed to like it.

Club music has different purposes. In the 90s I couldn't understand Gabber or Hardcore either. I just try to ignore this stuff, but it is really everywhere. There will be a backlash/collapse soon, as there were with the "Schranz" stuff in the earlier 00s.

Hehe any day now - I just hope it doesn't fall into slo-mo clickity clack mnml again... 95 % of that era was impressively boring!

You would hope techno doesn't do Anything again, but rather tries new things, once the trend is towards regurgitation and nostalgia, you know it's over.

[Amøbe]

Club music has different purposes. In the 90s I couldn't understand Gabber or Hardcore either. I just try to ignore this stuff, but it is really everywhere. There will be a backlash/collapse soon, as there were with the "Schranz" stuff in the earlier 00s.

Hehe any day now - I just hope it doesn't fall into slo-mo clickity clack mnml again... 95 % of that era was impressively boring!

You would hope techno doesn't do Anything again, but rather tries new things, once the trend is towards regurgitation and nostalgia, you know it's over.

Oh yeah - I'm hoping for more groove, while also being open to experiment.

I recently had this thought about nostalgia that it's definitely okay to be fond of and cherish a certain period. But that music is also archived - you can just pick up the records of that era and play them again. Being nostalgic shouldn't be an excuse for being in an impasse. And producing any art while nostalgic should only be a reason to set a direction. It's okay to go in the same direction of the past as long as you go further and find somewhere new to settle down.

Does that make sense? I'm not trying to claim that I'm the most experimental person on earth, but this line of thought helps me to get out of a standstill.

I will probably never love the schranzy side of techno, though

[chava]

It's okay to go in the same direction of the past as long as you go further and find somewhere new to settle down.

I like this quote, even it doesn't make totally sense

[Amøbe]

It's okay to go in the same direction of the past as long as you go further and find somewhere new to settle down.

I like this quote, even it doesn't make totally sense

it's almost unintentional haiku