After the 1994 Criminal Justice Act nearly left the British free party scene in ruins many traveler artists moved away from Britain to Europe, United States, Goa (India) and even Australia’s East Coast. The free party ideology spread through Eastern Europe. This period marked the rise in French, German and Dutch sound systems and Teknivals.
A teknival is a free event where any artist who enters is encouraged to participate, often leading to several days worth of randomly placed sound systems, cafes, tents and vehicles. The most famous free party sound system was Spiral Tribe which originated in West London and hosted the Castlemorton Common Festival in 1992 which drew a crowd of 35,000. Some say that this event had a huge impact on the lawmakers to develop the Criminal Justice Act.
The musical background of techno truly resides in Detroit. The blueprint for the entire genre developed from the Belleville Three: Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson & Derrick May. Derrick May described techno at one point as “It’s like Detroit. A complete mistake. It’s like George Clinton and Kraftwerk are stuck in an elevator with only a sequencer to keep them company.”
The instruments utilized by the original techno producers in Detroit included drum machines like the Roland TR-808 and bassline generators like the Roland TR-303. The TR-808 was developed to assist artists in making demos of their music and the TR-303 was developed to assist practicing guitarists with bass accompaniment.
A second wave of techno producers soon came onboard. The Belleville crew was joined by artists including Carl Craig, Kenny Larkin and Stacey Pullen. Underground Resistance was also defining their own sound with artists like Jeff Mills, Mike Banks and Robert Hood. UR was a group of artists who viewed themselves as a paramilitary group fighting against commercial mainstream entertainment.
In 1990, Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva started the Plus 8 record label which was based in Ontario. Many of the initial releases were industrial hardcore recordings. One of their last hardcore pressings was Cybersonik’s “Thrash.” They decided to depart from their hardcore concept when they played a club in Rotterdamn in 1992. The resident dj was playing “Thrash” when the crowd began to yell an anti-semitic football chant. They were prompted to change their musical direction by slowing down their tempos and engaging more funk and soul into their music. The label had eventually taken a sabbatical in 1997 when Acquaviva decided to concentrate on dj’ing and Hawtin began a new label called Minus.
This podcast captures the sounds of various regions that participated in developing the sound of techno as a whole, ranging from Paul Johnson in Chicago to Hardfloor in Germany and Funk D’Void in Barcelona. The timeframe for this music is dated to 1994-1995.
Nerk - Nok 1
Tok Tok - Snack 1
Hardfloor - Into The Nature
Floppy Sounds - Ultrasong
Slam - Positive Education
Robert Hood - Untitled
DJ ESP aka Woody Mcbride - Slow Mo
Christian Vogel - Time
Hardfloor - Beavis At Bat
Paul Johnson - Bouncing Bed Springs
Paul Jonson - Tenacious
Soup - Exposure
Funk D'Void - Jack Me Off
