Check this nice piece by Dan S.e.l.z.e.r one of my New York chums, his name correctly spelt here. Dan's not a writer per se, he runs the Acute subsidiary of the awesome Carpark label, specialising in re-issues. The bits on Cerrone and Patrick Adams are very juicy. Acute have just put out Glen Branca's Ascension. Dan's also working on an authoratitive Arthur Russell discography, so if you have that Flying Hearts flexi disc from Aspen magazine drop him a line and screw it all up.
Thing is though "The History of Techno" as such makes me giggle. Have you noticed how everyone has their "original" Techno moment that they'll swear blind to being it's actual point of inception. Steve Barrow has that squiggly 303 intro on that King Tubby track*, my friend Gwen had This Heat's 24 track loop, Jeff Mill's had that Charivari 12", David Toop had those Lil' Louie Vega mixes of Information Society, Juan Atkins has Kraftwerk's Computer World, that dude Peter Frohmader has the John Carpenter soundtracks, Autechre (yawn) have Bernard Parmegiani, more than many folk think it's Vladimir Ussachevsky, Derrick May thought it was Herbie Hancock's Rain Dance, Kevin Martin thought it was Tod Dockstader, Cabaret Voltaire thought it was the Belleville 3, and Dan thinks it's The Silver Apples (well he doesn't, but that's where his story starts.) It's an endearingly daft pursuit that usually tells you more about the person insisting than anything else. I reckon it was Tubbs's jacket in Miami Vice.
And actually it seems no-one cares any more. That revitalising shag that Techno gave the academy is history now. The quickest way to get an egg down your neck these days is to stand on a chair in the pub and yell at the top of your voice: "John Cage invented Techno!" It's just so passe!
*really busting out with the research today.
Posted by Woebot at July 3, 2003 10:37 AM