To my awareness there has only been one book that has dealt exclusively with Detroit techno. That is Dan Sicko's 'Techno Rebels'.
There are a handful of music or recording guides on the topic, but the only other major book I know of that has discussed Detroit techno at length is "More Brilliant than the Sun" By Kodwo Eshun. Dan obviously has a long and direct contact with the scene. He takes a historical, just the facts approach and is especially strong on the origins. I was so glad to see this book come out for several reasons. One is that there actually _exists_ a book about this music. It's so easy for things to be forgotten with the passing of time. Another reason is that I think many people don't know the true story and this book, in its no-nonsense approach, is the simplest way to set the record straight. Despite the books clarity, there are still people who have read it, and think that it is 'just' a book about Detroit's post-disco scene, or that it should have covered more on 'goa trance'. [see amazon.com customer reviews] Sure, the book doesn't talk much about techno's later development in Europe and elsewhere, but I think that is the book's strength. There will be plenty of other people out there who will write those stories. The book doesn't really talk much about the equipment and techniques. Same again. The other thing we might want a music book to write about is the music's structure and what it is like to listen to. Well, this is the difficult one, isn't it? I'm reminded here of something Brian Eno (I think) said. It was 'writing about music is like dancing about architecture'. Also, Wittgenstein said 'of that which we cannot speak, we must pass over in silence'. A moments reflection on this topic reveals to me that the best way to get an idea of what the music is like is to actually listen to it, of course. That, by the way, is not to say that reading about it is fundamentally flawed, or not useful or desirable, just secondary in many cases to careful and repeated listening. Some obvious examples when we need writing about music is with reviews, when we are trying to decide what to buy, when we are trying to explain to people unfamiliar with the music, the kind of reasons we are on this list, or perhaps when we are trying to make a more permanent record for the purposes of history, as in Dan Sicko's case. Since most (but not all) of the recordings are readily available, it makes sense in the case of Techno Rebels to put in a good discography and leave it at that. Kodwo Eshun's book is very different, on the other hand. The subject matter is mostly about D'n'B, dub, hip-hop, jazz, with Detroit techno one style among many. I got excited about this book because it brought together a lot of music, primarily black music, that I was really into. [I'll talk about this book a little here, but forgive me, my copy is in another country right now.] In the 1st chapter Kodwo says something about most dance music journalism being a mean and insubstantial list of names, labels and DJ charts. I tend to agree. He goes to a kind of opposite extreme to Dan's book, I think attempting to recreate the experience of listening in words. He also coins a whole lot of new scientific sounding compound words (e.g. technorhythmachine) and seems to be aligned with postmodern methods of analysis. This, at least for me, is fun to read to a certain extent, but I think it runs into the problems that are hinted at in Eno and Wittgenstein's thoughts. Jared Wilson wrote: > Sent: Monday, July 31, 2000 10:21 PM > Subject: Re: [313] UR in Europe > Also check out "More Brilliant than the Sun" By Kodwo Eshun. I would say a > much more sophisticated and postmodern view of techno, electro, jungle, etc. > Has an excellent section on UR. I would recommend it over "Techno > Rebels". Well, maybe postmodernism is more sophisticated in a way, but sometimes I think at the expense of clarity and common sense. A few months ago I read 'Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals Abuse of Science' by Sokal and Bricmont. I regard this as absolutely essential reading to anyone interested in postmodernism. In this book a number of leading postmodernists (Lacan, Baudrillard, Deleuze, Virilio, etc) are roundly criticized for the following: "1) Holding forth at length on scientific theories about which one has, at best an exceedingly hazy idea. The most common tactic is to use scientific (or pseudo-scientific) terminology without bothering much much about what the words actually mean. 2) Importing concepts from the natural sciences into the humanities or social sciences without giving the slightest conceptual or empirical justification... 3) Displaying a superficial erudition by shamelessly throwing around technical terms in a context where they are completely irrelevant... 4) Manipulating phrases and sentences that are, in fact, meaningless." I think Eshun is guilty of at least a few of these failures. The only way out then is to say that his book is not a serious theory of the music and 'black science fiction', but merely intended to be poetic, literary or metaphorical. If that's the way you read it (as I do), then cool. In a way, Eshun, writes like the music sounds, but for me, my favourite way to get musical ideas is by listening to music, not reading. Here's a few quotes: Mike Banks:"All I can hope is that music from our label can without words or explanations knock down all the barriers (racial, economic, religious, etc) that the programmers have cleverly set before us in order to keep us from understanding that categories and definitions separate and with separation comes exploitation and profit!... ..I choose to use music because men have been talking for years but always with FORKTONGUE music is true and ultimately much more efficient than all writtien language to this date - tribal people have known this for thousands of years.WE are all tribal people but some of us have strayed away from the talk of the drum and they talk with words and languages that mean nothing!THE DRUM IS ALWAYS BETTER" That last bit about meaning nothing chimes with Sokal's point 4 above, don't you think? LFO (from 'What is house?'):"House. What is house? Technotronic, KLF, or something you live in? To me, house is Phuture, Pierre, Fingers, Adonis, etc. The Pioneers of the Hypnotic Groove. Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode and the Yello Magic Orchestra. This album is dedicated to you... ..In the future, we hope our music will bring everyone a little closer together. Gay, straight, black or white, one nation under a groove." I think that both LFO and Mike Banks would agree that music is one of the most efficient ways of bringing people together and breaking down barriers. So where it's available, let's use it. There is an element here that goes beyond the music as just 'entertainment'. I don't know who this guy is, but this quote used in Sokal gets me thinking: "So long as authority inspires awe, confusion and absurdity enhance conservative tendencies in society. Firstly, because clear and logical thinking leads to a cumulation of knowledge (of which the progress of the natural sciences provides the best example) and the advance of knowledge sooner or later undermines the traditional order. Confused thinking, on the other hand, leads nowhere in particular and can be indulged indefinitely without producing any impact on the world." - Stanislav Andreski, Social Sciences as Sorcery (1972) Producing no impact on the world is probably the last thing Underground Resistance want to achieve, right? --- I got a bit sidetracked there, but in the end if you only read one book about Detroit techno, I'd go with 'Techno Rebels'. Read 'More Brilliant than the Sun' by all means, but with a grain of salt. peace out, florian p.s. (moving off topic a bit) If you're interested in the earliest origins of music, and the field of 'cognitive musicology', check out these links: http://www.nyas.org/anyas/contents/biosummary.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/433442.asp The 2nd lecture here is about the possibility that music arose as an evolutionary adaptation, and the 3rd is a really balanced synthesis of the sciences and humanities approach to musicology: http://dactyl.som.ohio-state.edu/Music220/Bloch.lectures/Bloch.lectures.html
