Ooh, I do like this a lot more. Feels a lot warmer than the stuff I listened to; seems like several techno groups have gone for water-themed sounds and it's not really one I'm a fan of.
I suppose this is the risk of exploring artists through compilations: it's hard to know what's indicative of their sound and what isn't. _________________ And it's hard to be a human being. And it's harder as anything else.
While going back through what I listened to at the beginning of this project I realized that while I listened to stuff from two of the original members of Underground Resistance - Jeff Mills and Robert Hood - I never checked out any solo work from the third original member, Mad Mike Banks. After some digging I found this comp from one of his monikers, and after one listen I think it might be the best thing I've listened to so far.
From what I can tell this compiles recordings from as far back as the early 90's, and shockingly it's an UR release on a label that's streaming on Spotify! Wild. I was a bit worried going in as this is nearly two hours long, but it didn't feel it's length at all. Now, like with some other stuff I've listened to, I have my doubts as to how much this qualifies as techno. But instead of it having a large house influence - some tracks do, but not all of them - the strongest influence here is jazz. Some of these feel more like jazz songs than techno songs. I've never been a big fan of jazz because I was apparently home sick from school on the day they taught us the musical knowledge necessary to understand jazz. But I've always liked jazz in hip hop and soul: jazz with a beat under it basically. And let me tell you, that's exactly what this is. These tracks are incredibly lush and engaging, really hypnotic but also with tons of unpredictable jazz stuff happening. And I'm pretty sure the last track here has a piano that riffs on the piano line from "Strings of Life," though I might be imagining it.
Here are a couple of my favorite tracks from this comp. The first was originally in 1993, and this is the original version, not the version on the comp. It blows my mind that this was released in 93, it sounds nothing like the rest of what the UR crew was making back then. The second track is one of the more house-influenced songs and it also has a strong gospel influence. It reminds me a lot of the Moodymann albums I've heard.
Finally getting around to what I promised so many days ago. I listened to a couple of Craig's albums, linked below, and I don't really have much to say about either of them. Part of the reason this took me so long to get to... I was interested to see where Craig went in the 90's since his work under the Psyche and BFC monikers was some of my favorite so far. It also sounds, at least to my ears, more futuristic than these two albums. I enjoyed Landcruising quite a bit, as it was a good mixture of atmospheric moments and harder ones. More Songs felt like a slightly worse version of Landcruising. Overall both were good techno albums that didn't stand out too much. I suppose that's both good and bad.
(2001) This is the highest rated Detroit Techno album on RYM. Of course that's a bit of a silly distinction since so much of the best Detroit stuff isn't in album form. But still, I was hoping for something pretty impressive from one of the members of Drexciya. Aesthetically, this feels a lot like deep house. It's minimal and very repetitive, relying more on subtle dynamics than huge accents or staples. It's also much more subdued than most of the techno I've heard, though it's still unmistakably techno with its metallic sound. All the songs here are pretty interesting...for their first halves. But none of them really evolve over their runtime, instead focusing on the same idea over and over. This is also true of the vocal samples, which just kind of repeat again and again without changing. I do have to give it credit for sounding like something that would be good background music for an empty cafe, but for active listening it gets a little old. _________________ And it's hard to be a human being. And it's harder as anything else.
And with that, I'm wrapping up the Detroit techno portion of this journal. As you can probably tell, I was getting a less enthusiastic as things went on. While I did enjoy a lot of what I heard, and loved some of it, there were a lot of artists that stuck to a pretty core techno sound. And that sound isn't one I'm terribly fond if; I won't hide the fact that the majority of what I loved was the more maximalist stuff that sounded closer to house music and that a lot of the more mechanical stuff kind of grated on me. Still though, I'm really glad I went through the genre because while I always had a vague idea of the origins of techno I never really knew the details, and I think I learned a lot along the way.
As a kind of summary, here's my Best Tracks playlist for Detroit techno:
Rhythm is Rhythm - Strings of Life
Model 500 - Night Drive (Thru-Babylon)
Inner City - Good Time
Psyche - Neurotic Behavior
Jeff Mills - The Bells
Robert Hood - Chase
Anthony Shakir - Arise
Galaxy 2 Galaxy - Hi-Tech Jazz
My plan for this journal had been to go through one subgenre at a time, but I'm having second thoughts about that. It feels a bit weird to keep jumping through time periods, and I think going chronologically would help me identify influences better. So from here out I'm going to hop around between subgenres but go mostly chronologically. If there's a subgenre that's mostly known for a certain time period (thinking something like acid house in the late 80's / early 90's) I might do a kind of deep dive on that subgenre. But otherwise I'm going to keep things fresh by jumping around more. Next stop will be the origins of house music in the early 80's. _________________ And it's hard to be a human being. And it's harder as anything else.
I was always a bit shocked to hear one of my favorite guitarists ever decided to (or perhaps knew it would get a decent amount of publicity to say) start working in electronic music (for what at the time sounded like exclusively).
Kraftwerk is the only electronic group/artist I've been like wow to somehow, so I'm pretty ignorant to saying where he stands as such an artist. I know he's not regarded as the best. I thought it was pretty good. But in your honest opinion, was it kinda garbage?
I was always a bit shocked to hear one of my favorite guitarists ever decided to (or perhaps knew it would get a decent amount of publicity to say) start working in electronic music (for what at the time sounded like exclusively).
Kraftwerk is the only electronic group/artist I've been like wow to somehow, so I'm pretty ignorant to saying where he stands as such an artist. I know he's not regarded as the best. I thought it was pretty good. But in your honest opinion, was it kinda garbage?
Until today I had no idea that John Frusciante had an electronic side project. Wild. Just gave the first track from his first album a listen and I didn't think it was that bad, maybe just a bit simplistic. Kind of sounds like the first recordings someone would make if they just started working in the genre. Wouldn't be too excited to listen to the rest of the album but I wouldn't say it's terrible. Though the only electronic music I tend to really hate is unstructured ambient stuff. I can vibe to most things that have a beat. _________________ And it's hard to be a human being. And it's harder as anything else.
I was always a bit shocked to hear one of my favorite guitarists ever decided to (or perhaps knew it would get a decent amount of publicity to say) start working in electronic music (for what at the time sounded like exclusively).
Kraftwerk is the only electronic group/artist I've been like wow to somehow, so I'm pretty ignorant to saying where he stands as such an artist. I know he's not regarded as the best. I thought it was pretty good. But in your honest opinion, was it kinda garbage?
Until today I had no idea that John Frusciante had an electronic side project. Wild. Just gave the first track from his first album a listen and I didn't think it was that bad, maybe just a bit simplistic. Kind of sounds like the first recordings someone would make if they just started working in the genre. Wouldn't be too excited to listen to the rest of the album but I wouldn't say it's terrible. Though the only electronic music I tend to really hate is unstructured ambient stuff. I can vibe to most things that have a beat.
Thanks for your take and this cool log - look forward to checking out more from it!
But yeah the beats are definitely a little less "high bar". I did like the layers played with at times, but yeah beat sounds a bit old school hip-hop even.
House and techno have been a major part of my life since the late 80s, so intrigued to see where your journey takes you. Whilst I missed out on golden age of rave/acid house in so far as I never lost nights partying in warehouses off the M25, I was always into the music, so be interested to see what you unearth from the British/European scene. Labels, as well as artists, are well worth digging around - R&S & Warp especially - and there are pioneers and bangers to be found all over the shop.
In the meantime, and to prove that Strings Of Life is (for me at least) the finest piece of music ever written/programmed I present to you...
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