From: jjyyjj@mixcom.com (Thomas Mueller)
Subject: What is techno, where is it going?
Organization: Milwaukee Internet Xchange BBS, Milwaukee, WI U.S.A.
Date: Sat, 05 Sep 1992 10:14:53 GMT

I don't want to spark a debate about what techno is or isn't, I hate that
kind of shit.  I'd like to know what common themes you listeners find in
techno music, what you like and dislike about it, why you think it appeals
to others, and where you think it is going.  I'm sure some of you reading
this are producing your own techno, so tell me what kinds of standard
conventions you see in the music, how you make it, what you think it
should be, and your inspirations?

Now, I've made a lot of techno own my own, but I don't get much satisfaction
out of what I've made, and I wonder what I'm missing, why I don't like it.
I would cautiously say that I think making techno is simple, repetitive
ugly analog noises in a minor key over any kind of beat, from a kick and
a syncopated hi hat from a drum machine to more complicated sampled beats.
Add some whoo! and let the bass kick samples (or any common samples), bang
diatonic 3rds or minor 7ths or suspended 4ths on your favorite toy piano
patch, add craftily programmed pitch bends for the wiggly saw wave effect
and...there you have it.  A little simplified, but it works.

So why is this stuff popular?  Nationwide record chains now have techno
compilation sections, to my dismay.  Where is this kind of music going?
Can anyone thing of examples of the jack booted heels of the MAN pouring
cash into producing bands and compilations that, to you, seem watered
down and commercial, already?  Is this necessarily the next step for
the genre, or will the basements and bedrooms full of cheap machines be
able to elude corporate rock?  What about mutations of techno?  Your
opinions and insights?

--
A large footnote, this might help to explain how I got to this point.
My progression into liking and making techno music goes a little like this;
- Got into industrial quite heavily.  Spent WAY too much money on it.
- Bought everything Skinny Puppy, FLA, Ministry, KMFDM, ClockDVA, Front242,
  Negativland (etc) ever put out.
- Spent a lot of time and money acquiring samplers and synths until I could
  punish my own machines and feed my mad cravings for bleeps and bass.
- Discovered the JAMMS/KLF.  Very amusing.
- Made lots of bland appregiated industrial with tension strings and brass
  hits until I was ready to fill out my "So you wanna be a FLA clone" papers.
- Lust for more mechanical music, blindly buying, searching, buying...
- Changed to making noise collages.
- Got disgusted with noise, made New Age Music.
- Found the Orb.  Mellowed out from March to June.
- Started buying albums using my sixth sense, looking for something like
  ClockDVA, only more anonymous and mechanical.  Very desperate, here.
  This musical style I was pursuing had no name to me, until the beloved
  WMSE 91.7 FM started playing techno, religiously identifying what they
  played.  So I learned band names, and bought accordingly.
- Listened to lots of techno day and night, enough to see how ugly and
  comical a lot of it is.  For laughs I made some of my own techno music.
- Regained net access, discovered alt.rave, sacrificed first born.
- Been going to raves every weekend to hear more of the beloved music,
  trying to absorb it all and learn from what I hear.

-- 
Thomas.Mueller@mixcom.com | We love to rave, and it shows. (H.P.Hovercraft)
I used to be gibsonlp@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Dean Herman).  Can you say "hacker?"
I still maintain the Skinny Puppy samples list.  Send me e-mail for a copy.