Thanks for the correction, Peter. It's Michigan Breaks, and 'Ewen is the Teacher'isn't it? ;=) Managed to grab a copy of the book. The Detroit-or 'Techno' part-is a short but provocative critique. I've taken the liberty of quoting some of it for the benefit of all:
"Sonically the music played on the received distinction between 'technology' and 'humanity', choosing to forego the disco-derived voluptuousness of house music in favour of a certain coolness, a refusal to force machine-music into shapes and textures which would conform to traditional, humanist notions of 'musicality'. At times its preoccupation with discourses of the future-in-the-present, a modernist politics of the 'underground', and the implicit avant-gardism pursued by some of its protagonists, has seemed to carry techno almost towards an accommodation with those puritan discourses to which dance culture is normally so hostile. May's reputed revulsion at the Dionysian idiocy of the UK rave scene is ironic when one considers how much it owed to records such as his own 'Strings of Life'. An unfortunate desire to uphold a Detroit 'aesthetic', when techno continued to mutate, alter and influence in Europe, feeding into rave, trance and ultimately such forms as gabber, has sometimes been manifested in a fondness for 'purism' and geographical authenticity (not of course exclusive to techno by any means) in some of the cultures and discourses around it, often by white musicians and journalists on behalf of black or diasporic musical forms. These forget that techno at its most exciting collided American and European traditions, rather than merely retracing narratives of appropriation." Wes On Thu, 27 Apr 2000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > In a message dated 4/27/00 5:25:01 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > >np. Detroit Breaks - Maas > > Actually, it's called Michigan Breaks... > > pw >
