23.12.16

Force Field: Detroit Techno 1985-1995



This is the conceptual twin to my London's Dreaming mammoth 'Nuum mix of February. Whilst I probably heard Hardcore first, my first musical love in the days of Acid House was Detroit. That's what inspired me to travel around West Africa in 1993 throwing raves. It wasn't seeing Derrick DJ at Bath in 1989 (an alienating experience at the time) or loving the Rhythim Is Rhythim "Emanon" track on the seminal 1990 Network Bio Rhythms compilation which stoked my obsession so much as the influence of my brother-in-law Mike. Later I appreciated David Toop's, and then Kodwo Eshun's writing which included references to Detroit.

Early on in the course of blogging in 2003 I wrote a number of things on Techno which drew me into cahoots with the legendary Kirk Degiorgio, a well-known fellow traveller of those musicians. I think Kirk and I shared a frustration with the discourse around Detroit which in spite of his unquestionable taste and robust support for it, he was perhaps in part responsible for forging. To hear the music as indebted to black music is in some way to negate what makes it so truly exceptional. As a music it doesn't so much as enact the donning of a "white face" (in Fanon's sense) as try to think beyond race. Another way of approaching the topic theoretically it is to try and deconstruct those earlier forms of black music; to look at the likes of Herbie Hancock and George Clinton as transgressive themselves as opposed to automatically belonging to any kind of continuum of Jazz or Funk.

In collecting my thoughts to put this mix together, just shy of 4 hours of my personal favourites of the genre, I read and watched a lot of things on the internet that certainly weren't there in 2003. A few resources stand out: There's the great "Hi-Tech Soul" documentary, also the slightly tedious but ultimately rewarding Red Bull Music Academy interview with Derrick May (hearing Derrick on Ron Hardy and The Institute is powerfully illuminating), Mark Fisher's splendid interview with Mike Banks at The Wire, and finally this excellent Mike Paradinas mix in support of a Heterotic release. What did strike me forcibly was, besides Mike's mix, the almost total absence of a good "classic" Detroit mix online. Think of the multitude of classic Hardcore and Jungle sets! There are many YouTube and Mixcloud shows which feature Detroit legends promising to give an old skool set - but, presumably to the promoter's chagrin, none of the performances contain more than a few great old tracks, and usually much more recent stuff. I can't blame those guys at all, they have moved on and quite rightly so. Derrick, for instance, will always play a few very old tracks, but is also madly passionate about new stuff. If you haven't seen him DJ live, DO NOT MISS THE OPPORTUNITY.

This mix was done live on the 1210s in three sessions, recorded on a Prism Lyra and spliced together in Audition. Mixing Detroit Techno on the decks always has some funny little gotchas: two of these records spun from the centre to the record's edge; Underground Resistance Records especially are always extremely fast, it takes a lot of forward thinking if you do not want to slow any records down (as I have completely avoided); and many of the records have fragile run-in grooves (funky pressings) which makes it extremely hard to hit the first beat if you spin back a record to it.

The mix of 63 tracks is essentially, but broadly, chronological. It would have been predictably geeky to start with A Number of Names "Sharevari" or Cybotron's "Clear" but I decided that this was to be a Techno mix. To that end the first track is Juan Atkin's "Techno Music", the track which caused Ten Record's "Techno - The New Dance Sound Of Detroit" to be called just that, and not "The House Sound of Detroit". That said the first tracks still have a gorgeous, glistening Electro quality. "Techno Music" itself is as near to a Kraftwerk track in spirit than I think any other record ever made. Startling stuff...

The mix takes in the First Wave, the Second and, er, the Third. There a few markers at which point I don't think it makes sense to still be talking about Detroit Techno in the same way. They don't happen all at the same time - some sooner than others - but all combine to sink nails into its coffin. So for instance when Jeff Mills left Detroit for Berlin - nail. When Transmat started licensing 3rd party stuff more, the "Energy Flash" and "Der Klang Der Familie" releases in particular, nail. Richie Hawtin's Plastikman alias, nail. I like Ghostly International, Ectomorph and Matthew Dear very much indeed - I just happen to think that they are something different, albeit great.

Dedicated to those titans of Detroit, Belleville, Windsor and Kalamazoo.



Juan Atkins - Techno Music
Model 500 - Night Drive (Thru-Babylon)
First Bass - Seperate Minds
M 500 - Testing 1-2
Eddie "Flashin'" Fowlkes - Time to Express
Rhythim Is Rhythim - It Is What It Is
Model 500 - Off to Battle
Kevin Saunderson - Bounce Your Body To The Box
Reese and Santonio - The Sound
Kevin Saunderson - The Groove That Won't Stop
R-Tyme - R-Theme
Mayday - Wiggin
Suburban Knight - The Groove
Reese - Just Want Another Chance
Ocatve One - I believe
Symbols and Instruments - Mood
Model 500 - Wanderer
Blake Baxter - Sexuality
Eddie "Flashin'" Fowlkes - Goodbye Kiss
Reese - Funky Funk Funk
Suburban Knight - The Art of Stalking
Rhythim Is Rhythim - Emanon
Rhythim Is Rhythim - Kaos
Rhythm Is Rhythm - The Beginning
Psyche - From Beyond
Vice - Constant Ritual
Fade To Black - The Calling
69 - Ladies and Gentlemen
Bango - Wave The Rave Goodbye
Drexciya - Sea Snake
Underground Resistance - Predator
Underground Resistance - The Final Frontier
Carl Craig - Wrap Me In Its Arms
B.F.C - Please Stand By
Drexciya - Wavejumper
69 - Microlovr
Sueno Latino - Sueno Latino (Illusion First Mix)
Octave One - Nicolette
Psyance - EQ
Open House - Aquatic
Prototype - Biotic
Dark Comedy - War Of The Worlds
Kenny Larkin - Metropolis
Shop - Nitwit
B.F.C - Galaxy
Underground Resistance - Amazon
Paperclip People - Oscillator
MK - Feel The Fire
Derrick May -Icon
Urban Culture - Wonders of Wishing
Kosmic Messenger - Soundscape
UR - 046
The Martian - Search Your Feelings
Eddie "Flashin'" Fowlkes - Sex In Zero Gravity
Red Planet - Star Dancer
Robert Hood - Untitled 2
Psychic Warfare - Tails From The Crib
Jay Denham - People's Revolution
Millsart - Gateway Of Zen
Robert Hood - Museum
Dan Curtin - 3rd From The Sun
Morgan Geist - Stillway
Space - Envision

23.4.16

Fragments - Techno In The UK 1989-1993



A classic bit of troublemaking really. On Billy Bunter's recent show with Floyd Dyce, Floyd pointed to the massive influence of Bleep'n'Bass on his classic "Daydreaming". I got to thinking about of a strictly UK bleep mix that steered several 'Nuum figures (like A Guy Called Gerald and Mark Ryder) into Techno where they also rightfully belong. Also there's the breakbeats of TFSOL and Black Dog. It was never a hard and fast distinction in those days. Also there was the sheer joy of rubbing B12 up against the 'Nuum and rejoicing in beautiful tracks by Kirk Degiorgio and Iueke. On the wheels of steel. No edits at all.

Original Clique - Now Hear Me Now
Unique 3 - Weight for the Bass (3 Ton Mix)
Forgemasters - Stress
Inertia (A Guy Called Gerald) - Fragments
M-D-Emm (Mark Ryder) - Get Acidic
Bang The Party - Instrumental
The Aphex Twin - Delphium
As One - Isatai
Iueke - Tape 4
Likemind - Artifax
Orbital - Belfast
Mark Broom - Seagulls
Reload - Le Sol Et La Mer (Black Dog Productions Remix)
Intelligent Communication - Drive
Musicology - Mondrin
Baby D - Daydreaming

20.2.16

London's Dreaming Mix


I know, I thought,  I'll make a Hardcore mix. All my own personal favourite tracks. No, wait a second. What about four mixes? 92. 93. 94. 95-96.

Then, hang on, why don't I just make one massive five-hour continuum style mix spanning the whole era. But was such a thing even possible in human terms? Would I survive such an endeavour?

It took weeks to go through all my old jungle records appraising them. It couldn't be one of those tedious "best of jungle" mixes" that litter YouTube and Mixcloud full entirely of famous tracks which everyone has heard. And I picked up a few new tracks. My, how expensive they have become...

Equally it couldn't be simply obscure tracks, because the big tracks are frequently the greatest. "Personal favourites" - that became the organising principle and there are many tracks in here that even the deepest Hardcore aficionado will never have heard.

If there one was one mix which inspired me it was J Rolla's "Drum Trip" mix - well, I may not be able to beat that but I thought I'd give it my best shot. Rolla's is a brilliant mix. I even stole two tracks from him. Thanks for that J. I may have given him a run for his money but the criteria are different. I haven't had to deal with the dread of repeating myself too much, which anyone DJ-ing and uploading more frequently would have to contend with. But I still avoided tunes from my mixes Joyride,  Ambient Jungle, and Brick Door all of which traverse similar terrain.

I briefly looked into studio mix software, then thought better of that. I rigged up the ol' 1210s (I had to reclaim them from my children) and got my bearings with the beat mixing reasonably quickly. There is some bad mixing - there are a few tense moments. A few cuts are too abrupt (woah, it's going wrong!!!). It was completed in three sessions. The only post work was to bring up the volume of a couple of tunes and splice out Foul Play's original version of "Feel The Vibe" with "Feel The Vibe (Again)" - their remix is SO much better.

Here's to the genius of those wonderful dreamers who gave us these 83 magical tracks.

London is Dreaming track-list in full:

Rhythm Section - Dreamworld
Urban Shakedown - Bass Shake
A Guy Called Gerald - The Musical Magical Midi Machine
Nookie - Give A Little Love
The House Crew - Keep The Fire Burning
4 Hero - Ghost Stories
Ephemerol - 456
MI7 - Rockin’ Down The House
The Brothers Grimm - Exodus
Hyper-On Experience - Assention
Sy-Kick - Follow Me
Sub Love - Maniac Music
Foul Play - Feel The Vibe
Body Snatch - The Strength
Foul Play - Dubbing You
Rufige Kru - Kemistry
Noise Factory - All Crew
Yolk - Music 4 Da People
DJs Unite - Bass Penetrates
Psychotropic - Hypnosis (SL2 Remix)
Andy C - Never Felt This Way
A Guy Called Gerald - The Freak Inside
Q Bass - Funky Hardcore
D’Cruze - What A Rush
Neuromancer of Structural Damage - Pennywise
Wax Doctor - The Stalker
Tango - Timebomb
Bay-B-Kane - Bagpipes in Effect
Timelapse - Sued For a Sample
DJ Rap And Aston - Feel The Magic
Ekude - Common Sensi
DJ Crystl - Suicidal
Hyper-On Experience - Disturbance
Noise Factory - We Have It
Body Snatch - Tuffness
A Guy Called Gerald - Darker Than I Should Be
4 Hero - Journey From The Light
The House Crew - Maniac (The Final Conflict)
Ruffige Cru - Ghosts of My Life
Foul Play - Finest Illusion
Manix and Rufige Cru - You Held My Hand
Noise Factory - Can You Feel The Rush
Doc Scott - Street Knowledge
Trinity - Chapter 19
DJ Hype - Come Again
Dillinja - Untitled
The Whitehouse Crew - Anonymous
Underground Software - Music Maker Possee
Tayla - Remnants
Flatliner - The Big Bang
DJ Kane - Lost
Smokey Joe - Shining Remix
Randall and Andy C - Feel It
International Rude Boyz - Paragone
DJ Solo - Deal Wid It
L Double - What Am I Gonna Do?
AK47 - Body Candone
DJ Flynn and DJ Flora - Jungle Love
Aladdin - We Enter
Noise Factory - Feel The Magic
Fusion - Love for the World Part 2
Roni Size - Fresh
Dillinja - Stompers Delight
Dillinja - Deep Love Remix
Cold Mission - Drug Store Rude Boy
Deep Blue - Helicopter (Rufige Kru Remix)
Low Key Movements - Come Cross!!
Koda - The Deep
DJ Crystl - Crystylize
Gappa G and Hypa Hyper - Roach is Burning
Charlie Recall - Submerged
DJ Nut Nut + Pure Science - The Rumble
DJ SS - Black
DJ Pulse - Stay Calm (Foul Play Remix)
Shimon - Within Reason (Liftin’ Spirits Remix)
Cool Hand Flex - Melody Madness
808 State - Azura (Dillinja Remix)
Maldini - Daze
DJ Die - Play It For Me
Glamour Gold - You Can Run
Firefox - Bass-switch
Capone - Mysteries of The Deep
Firefox - Bonanza Kid