The original question, IIRC, was whether Detroit Techno (as a term)
brought to mind abstract, string-laden melodies (the kind that demand
emotional as well as physical response) or
abstract-minimal-but-bangin' nonetheless tracks like the ones that
have long made Mills famous.
Of course, the question, "what does Detroit techno mean today?" is
open, and answerable by all who care. Whether they're Aril Brikha
(not from Detroit) or KDJ (militantly from it, and of it), all who
care contribute to the ongoing answer. Which is why "Detroit Techno"
as a term, like the 313 list itself, hasn't shrivelled into a
too-narrow, too-precise, and too-uptight-to-have-fun genre. (This
is, BTW, exactly what Simon Reynolds continually argues about Detroit
and Detroit-o-philes in _Generation Ecstacy_. A big raspberry to
him.)
But asking whether Hood and Mills count as mainstream Detroit techno
actually pins quite nicely the *historical* (not
present-interpretive) component of the question.
What if ALL of Mills' output is really taken as a "centre" or
"mainstream" of Detroit Techno. I mean everything from Wizard sets
(which are contemporaneous to the prep scene in Detroit, and predate
the very coinage "techno" as do the early works of Atkins, May &
Saunderson) to his work with the industrial Final Cut to his abstract
soundtrack works to the hardest Punisher & Axis releases... I don't
mean to diminish the work of anyone else with this example, but if
you consider Mills as the very centre around which Detroit Techno has
whirled and developed, you get an answer that takes you back to the
very beginning:
In the beginning, there was a crowd of kids who tried different
things. They experimented -- with analog synths, with turntables,
with backtracking their way out of mixes, they tried on early hip-hop
electro mixing techniques, and were driven both by the mad techne
(technical wizardry, whatever) of pounding rhythms and by the desire
to express something through machines, without recourse to what they
clearly saw as limiting forms of balladry & storytelling in R&B,
rock-n-roll, etc. They have truck with hard percussion stripped of
all melody, and they put out lush instrumental soundtracks that sound
like they come from American Minimal composers like Steve Reich or
John Cage. They try nearly *everything*.
Put simply, the *breadth* of the field, and the willingness to engage
and invent, are what characterize early techno. And I think, given
the immense musical variety of those who still point back to Detroit,
these things still characterize Detroit Techno today.
Please continue to discuss at length. That's what this list has been
here for -- ten years now.
-marc c.
At 11:30 AM +0100 9/7/04, Brendan Nelson wrote:
I remember when I first came across that Flash "guide to
electronic music" that was put together by a bloke called
Ashok or something, which attempted to sum up Detroit
techno with an audio snippet of Hood's "Pole Position"
and a spiel about how Detroit techno is supposed to make
you feel quite disoriented and lost. Of course, that
*totally* missed the point, and I remember he was getting
so many emails from people on 313 that he even put up a
little notice saying "if you're on the 313 list, don't
email me OK!?"...
However, I do think that Hood and Mills count as Detroit
techno (obviously!) even though they're not what might be
called "mainstream" Detroit techno. One of the things I
most like about Detroit techno in general is the fact that
it's quite difficult to pigeonhole - you go to a Detroit
techno party, and you're going to hear a very wide range
of music as the night progresses. Most other styles of
dance music can't really boast that degree of internal
variation, I don't think.
Brendan
-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Chester [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 07 September 2004 11:30
To: [email protected]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: (313) Detroit Techno
>
For my part though, the mention of 'Detroit Techno' always
makes me think of
the richer, funkier and melodic side of things - tracks like
Amazon and
Final Frontier are the first in my thoughts. The likes of
Mills and Hood
wouldn't spring to mind at all, although I do love their
earlier material
and they are obviously just as much a part of Detroit's history...
