I think the baton has been passed somewhat from Detroit. If you look at what most of the old school producers are doing these days, other than some of the Submerge guys I dont see many producers from Detroit really carrying on the sound with any real energy. In fact the City seems more known for its house output these days than anything else. The issue of Black producers aside, I personally hear plenty of music thats every bit as good as the old Detroit classics, but it alsways seems to get labelled as 'retro' in an almost negative sense, which always puzzles me. Personally I think the original sound and ideas had and have a hell of a lot more room for exploration and, if anything, the ideas that Derrick et al started exploring years ago were cut woefully short when people like Carl Craig and many others started moving away from the sound a bit. I cant remember the last time I actually heard people like Derrick or Juan really championing the sound. Even at the DEMF a few years back I felt Juan, aside from a few early electro classics, played a pretty humdrum set of mostly European stuff when he had the perfect stage to really celebrate the City's musical legacy. I dunno, but when I listen to some of the stuff on labels like Delsin and others that are run by the people Derrick and everyone inspired to begin with I personally think thats where its at these days. Even with my own label Im basically trying to put out the kind of stuff that I wanted to listen to when Transmat was in its prime, I dont think its retro just because it harks back to a golden age, I just feel that the Golden age never had to end and the only reason it did was because for some reason most of the main guys involved seemed to decide that there was nothing more to say and moved on. Personally I was and still am ready to listen. I think the whole rave scene, at least in the UK, which was a pretty big market for Detroit's techno in the late 80s early 90s, didnt help. It was almost like the techno equivelent of the dot com crash, suddenly there were record shops everywhere and techno records being knocked out every 5 seconds and there were thousands of music hungry ravers willing to spend almost every penny they had (after they had sorted thier E's for the week of course ;) on vinyl and there was just no way that the scene could sustain itself at that level. No matter who you were the chances are youd have been exposed to good techno and good electronic music generally at some stage, because it was everywhere. There was no such things as Alcopops or trendy towny high street bars, drinking was a different culture entirley. Now though, 99% of all kids who might have discovered something musically special and personal and dear to them 10 or 15 years ago have nothing but commercial pop crap thrown at them from all angles, because its offered to them so easily that there is really very little point lookign further. From 16 years upward, any kid can easily slot nicely into place in a drinking culture revolving around commercialism and accesability. We got in to techno because that option wasnt there then, there was nothing else to do as a kid so you had to look harder and in doing so we discovered a wealth of amazing music and interesting people and lifestyles. Why do you think the rave boom exploded so much, because there were bascially millions of kids out there who were bored and excluded and desperate for something to call thier own. Now they dont have to be excluded, they dont have to be bored, they can walk into any Walkabout bar at 16, get pissed on Aftershock or Vodka and Red Bull, dance around to Chart Music and hey presto, an instant lifestyle, no need to look any further afield. If Im honest I couldnt say for sure if I had had these lifestyle options open to me when I was a kid, that I wouldnt have fallen into the same groove and missed out on all the great music Ive enjoyed for years. Who knows.
Anyway, excuse my long winded and meandering rant, think I better shut up now before I get even further off the point. Stewart ----- Original Message ----- From: "J. T." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 1:48 PM Subject: RE: AW: (313) Derrick May quote and the Death of Techno > not only is there no real new generation of black techno, but i mean matthew > dear...who cares if he's popular, does it really have any soul or connection > to the character of classic detroit techno? not that i can hear...just > happens to be from detroit..and i mean look at what ends up under the > "techno" listing on new release lists etc...first, there's not much, 2nd > what there is is 80--90% lifeless dj tool crap... > > > >I guess you're right. I can understand their disappointment. > > > > > > > >-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- > >Von: Greg Earle [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Gesendet: Dienstag, 3. Februar 2004 13:09 > >An: [email protected] > >Betreff: Re: (313) Derrick May quote and the Death of Techno > > > >I'm going to risk a major firestorm by venturing that when Derrick said > > > > > "... because I think this may be the last chance that we may be able > > > to do > > > it through Techno music. I don't know if there's going to be a next > > > generation of young musicians coming through to follow up in our > > > footsteps." > > > >he really meant "I don't know if there's going to be a next generation > >of > >young BLACK Detroit musicians coming through to follow up in our > >footsteps." > > > >I've had discussions on several disparate occasions with Black Detroit > >artists (Rob Hood, Kenny Larkin, Bone, etc.) and they all bemoaned to me > >the fact that there seemed to be no young Black cats coming up through > >the ranks - that all the young brothers were just interested in Hip-Hop > >now, > >and didn't care about Techno. They all understood why things were the > >way they were, but it made them sad nevertheless. > > > >Obviously I don't live in Detroit so I don't know all the current > >players > >on the scene, but off the top of my head I couldn't think of anyone > >younger than, say, Sean Deason (chime in Sean!) or Kenny Dixon Jr. (or > >our own Jwan, if we stretch Detroit over to Pittsburgh :-) ). > > > >(One thing that triggered my thinking of this line of reasoning was > >listening > > to Kenny's old Dark Comedy track "Without A Sound (Silent Mix)" from > >"Corbomite > > Maneuver". [EMAIL PROTECTED] what a sublime track. It's going on my > > Wedding > >music list.) > > > > - Greg > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Let the new MSN Premium Internet Software make the most of your high-speed > experience. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-us&page=byoa/prem&ST=1 > > >
