Jonty Skrufff's Blog

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Technasia: Wake Up People, Techno Has Nearly Died!

Rainer Weichhold (Great Stuff): I Completely Disagree

Dave Clarke: Techno Needs to Leave Space Ships and Aliens Behind

Louis Osbourne: Fuck the Genres

Luis Junior: Writing Music Shouldn’t Be a Job

Mugwump: Dull DJs Play Dull Music in Every Scene

Rainer Weichhold

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Last week Kiran Sande, deputy editor of leading British music magazine Fact, published a pointed polemic slating the unoriginality of much of today’s techno (see below). This week we asked some of the techno scene’s leading lights, namely Dave Clarke, Technasia, Rainer Weichhold from Great Stuff, Louis Osbourne (Miji) Geoffroy Mugwump and Luis Junior (Bedrock), what they thought . . . .

Kiran Sande:  “Techno has for too long clung to its self-mythology: the unshakable idea that it’s a vanguard music, that it’s still some kind of future-rushing phenomenon. In the past half-decade the hollowness of that claim has become increasingly obvious. Techno today feels like a nostalgia industry, fixated on its own past, and all too eager to operate within established boundaries, not to break any rules. A once fluid and revolutionary sound has become – in the main – polite, toothless, interminably dull.”

(FACT magazine article in full)

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Technasia: Wake Up People, Techno Has Nearly Died!

14 years after he started Technasia with Hong Kong producer Amil Khan Parisian Charles Siegling operates solo, though he’s as passionate and as committed to techno as ever. New album Central is out now followed by the imminent release of a remix EP celebrating the 10th anniversary of their acclaimed techno anthem Force.

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Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): What’s your assessment of the state of techno: what did you do make of the Fact article: does any of it strike a chord (or not?)

Technasia (Charles Siegling): “The whole industry has shouted out loud for the whole past decade that they didn’t want any more of this ‘noisy’, ‘dirty’ Techno sound: no more fast beats, no more roughness, no more distortion, no more experimentation, They just wanted whatever DJ clichés the music industry could ever give them. That gave us the whole DJs with sunglasses, cool Ed-Bangerish T-shirts and nice haircut thingy. They completely adored and over-promoted insipid, empty and over-formatted styles such as Minimal and Electro. And then, ten years later, here they all come saying that Techno has los its originality and cutting edge spirit! It’s quite an easy shot taken at it, I think. Wake up people! Techno has nearly died, thanks to 99% of you all outthere who have not supported it for all these years!”

Skrufff: how did so much techno end up being so conservative? what’s gone wrong?’

Technasia: “The fault with a materialistic society that puts all its focus on the form and not the content. New teenage producers that just want to use whatever style they’re a little bit good at to try to become a superstar DJ. Where the fuck is the pleasure of making music by pure passion for it? Techno used to be the antithesis of any commercial art form. It was above all a sound made by its creators and listened by its aficionados by sole pure passion, whether it would get popular OR NOT. It has now just become a sound formatted by artists to reach higher popular status, simply another tool to make money in the music industry.

Skrufff: And why are so many clubbers continuing to support so many dull (big name) DJs playing dull music?

Technasia: “That’s the biggest mystery in the universe! I’d even say how can they support so many “NON-DJs”, because mixing the last four bars of a record with the first four bars of the next by pressing play on computer that does it all for you, even my grandmother can do that. There’ ain’t no bottom to the sacred hole of cheesiness!”

Skrufff: What’s the future for techno: where does it go from here?

Technasia: “The public takes whatever you give them. Give them shit and they’ll eat shit. So if you just make current producers, labels, online shops, medias, clubs and festivals be a bit more brave, open-minded and cutting-edge with the music they make, promote, distribute, sell, and with the artists they book, then innovation and quality will naturally pick up from there. But I have my strong doubts that the whole industry will ever be able to understand that.”

Click HERE to listen to Technasia’s new album Central in full

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Dave Clarke: Techno Needs to Leave Space Ships and Aliens Behind…

Notoriously opinionated Brit in Amsterdam Dave Clarke needs little introduction after a two decade career that’s seen him (apparently) effortlessly maintaining his status one of the world’s most popular and uncompromising techno DJs.  Check him out on his radio show White Noise every week, here or on his official site here:

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Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): What’s your assessment of the state of techno and what you do make of the Fact article: does any of it strike a chord (or not?)

Dave Clarke: “I have always found FACT a bit of a joke believing itself to be in the vanguard of intelligensia whereas it truly belongs in a boys club where they eat their own homemade salty biscuits and compliment each on other on the texture.”

Skrufff: How did so much techno end up being so conservative? what’s gone wrong?

Dave Clarke: “Most dance music is conservative and I’m sure techno can be accused of having some conservative elements just as much as Drum & Bass, Minimal and Electro. You have to look in all genres to find the best music and I believe nothing has gone wrong specifically with this genre. It is yet again a case of UK lazy journalism and pathetic sensationalism.”

Skrufff: And why are so many clubbers continuing to support so many dull (big name) DJs playing dull music?

Dave Clarke: You should go to the clubbers in Ibiza and ask that question, I cannot be bothered to even go to an island that is so full of cliches that does nothing to further music at all.”

Skrufff: What’s the future for techno: where does it go from here?

Dave Clarke: To leave talk of space ships and aliens behind, to stop being reverent to a few cities and look at all the wonderful exciting techno that is coming through places like soundcloud, myspace and direct from producers themselves.

(Dave on his official biog: ‘I got so much shit for being a futurist,” he states (he was the first Techno artist to release an Internet only single back in 2000), “When I started going digital and moved away from vinyl some of my fellow artists asked me, ‘How much are they paying you?’ How much is who paying me? It was such a strange situation – this is techno – it’s supposed to be forward-looking! I thought, ‘Whatever these people say, I’m still going to move forward, it’s the right course . . .’)

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Rainer Weichhold Great Stuff

Increasingly recognized as a producer and DJ in his own right, right now Rainer Weichhold remains best known as the boss of Great Stuff, arguably the best label (and label hub) to have emerged in Germany in the last 5 years.

Championing a wide variety of (mainly) European producers including Butch, Lutzenkirchen, Ramon Tapia and scores of brilliant one offs, he’s responsible for releasing  scores of fantastic techno and house tracks many of which are deep, minimal and/ or pumping.

Rainer Weichhold “I completely disagree with FACT magazine: Techno still remains a very open formula which can incorporate new tendencies really quickly and fuse with new sounds and influences.

Be it dubstep or soulful deep house, Techno can absorb new genres and build something new out of them, which makes it still as innovative as always. For many years now Techno has travelled between the masses and the underground and it will always be like that. Where is jungle these days? And Two step? These styles couldn’t stand the test of time and struggled from a major lack of innovation.”

(Rainer on Soundcloud)

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Louis Osbourne: Fuck the Genres

Acclaimed underground DJ/ producer Louis Osbourne is the man behind label to watch Mija Recordings and as the high quality of his label shows, has his finger firmly on the pulse of stripped, deep, dark. He’s also more than a touch familiar with the inner workings and motivations of the media, being the son of notorious heavy metal legend Ozzy . . .

(Click HERE for a bunch of Mija’s tracks including Jamie Anderson’s Cyclone).

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Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): What’s your assessment of the state of techno and what you do make of the Fact article: does any of it strike a chord (or not?)

Louis Osbourne: “I agree with it to some degree, techno is a bit formulaic these days. The minimal movement didn’t help, and all this bland loopy minimal house. But as I’ve said to you before, it all comes down to setting the “shit filters” to high and filtering out the rubbish. There is still loads of good music being produced, so labels and ultimately DJ’s should go about finding the good tracks and giving great performances.”

Skrufff: How did so much techno end up being so conservative? what’s gone wrong?

Louis Osbourne: “I think all the big guys have grown older, everything slowed down (bpms), and as people get older their imagination and inventiveness wanes. People are far more experimental and willing to take risks, both professionally and artistically, when they are younger. We now have a scene dominated by the older big artists who have lost some of that spark. Everyone is living in their comfort zone. However, people are still pushing boundaries, and there are many young artists coming through. It will evolve naturally… Such is life!”

Skrufff: And why are so many clubbers continuing to support so many dull (big name) DJs playing dull music?

Louis Osbourne: “The bottom line is that that comment from FACT is an entirely subjective opinion of the writer. If people still like to go out and listen to techno, dance and enjoy it then who cares what anyone else thinks?! It’s horses for courses. There is so much variety these days that no musical scene will last long if it turns shite and no one turns up at gigs. We are in the entertainment industry, so people need entertaining. Clubbers are ultimate arbiters.  They will decide with their feet who lives and who gets buried. A lot of this comes down to sub-scenes having to be put into genres. Fuck the genres, it’s all just electronic music. If it were just viewed as such and not over scrutinised and compartmentalised by journalists then there would be less waffle. But then you lot would have nothing to write.”

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Luis Junior: Writing Music Shouldn’t Be a Job

John Digweed’s latest protégé Luis Junior hails from Spain and is currently breaking big off the back of his excellent pulsating anthem BG (click HERE to hear it.

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Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): What’s your assessment of the state of techno and what you do make of the Fact article: does any of it strike a chord (or not?)

Luis Junior; “Ok, when you say techno, I think it means music around this kind of  music with different influences and styles. It’s true that sometimes I have to listen to hundreds of tracks to find productions that I really like. In turn, many DJs are now finding the need and obligation to make music to be heard and so to get gigs. Writing music should be a feeling. Not  one’s duty or work.”

For me, there is much room to discover, I feel very comfortable at this time with my productions and I hear many productions that excite and surprise me.

Skrufff: How did so much techno end up being so conservative? what’s gone wrong?

Luis Junior; “It’s not a bad idea to use resources from the past, though for me, it’s always necessary to try new approaches. And I don’t think it’s true that techno has become conservative at all, there are  some very interesting producers out there and much to be done.”

Skrufff: And why are so many clubbers continuing to support so many dull (big name) DJs playing dull music?

Luis Junior: “Well that’s very simple to answer big name DJs thrive because booking them makes it easier to fill a club or festival. And of course, many big names are big because they are great artists and they always deliver something special.”

Skrufff: What’s the future for techno: where does it go from here?

Luis Junior: “Really I don’t know, but I have so many ideas to do. I hope to be part of this future.”

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Mugwump: Dull DJs Play Dull Music in Every Scene .

Starting his career 20 years ago producing New Beat electronic music, Geoffroy from Mugwump is one of Belgium’s most experienced and successful electronic music producers. Fiercely eclectic (his productions vary from Blackstrobe style noir-ish techno to purer than pure house) he’s a big fan of the label he releases on the most often: Kompakt.

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Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): What’s your assessment of the state of techno and what you do make of the Fact article: does any of it strike a chord (or not?)

Mugwump: “The nostalgia that has invaded some techno floors in recent times leaves me feeling pretty bored especially when it’s some big name ‘minimal’ DJ playing carbon copy deep and tracky house that sounds like it’s from the late 90s. I’m more partial to some Berghain-style white label personally but yes I agree that lots of techno right now is very nostalgic and linear and too much if it’s played all night long I think. For me anyway.”

Skrufff: Why has it happened? what’s gone wrong? how did techno end up being so conservative?

Mugwump: “It’s really because of minimal. Even if it was welcome as a release serious antidote to the excesses of loopy/clubbing techno, minimal techno was hailed too much as ‘the future’ and became some sort of a new religion followed by legions of copycat producers who totally distilled its essence. Which meant minimal got lost in a sea of boredom (though I just say a lot of the Frankfurt stuff from the early days still sounds seriously sexy). And to top everything there were no bass lines. which was bad. That’s where deep house struck back, but this deep thing has also regressed so far backwards that I’m also bored of it too. We did this ten years ago, why do this again in a much less interesting way?

Although I must say that there IS interesting deep house stuff around right now which can be surprisingly fresh and a bit psychedelic too, Wolf & Lamb,  Culprit, Soul Clap, Jamie Jones, Lee Foss, Sect etc.., but its more new deep-house than new techno maybe. Good techno for me is coming from the ever-consistent Curle label, the always reliable Clone camp and Pieter Van Hoesen. And obviously from Kompakt, in a much more open and non-purist way of course, which is what I personally really dig. I really love all Chlöé’s stuff too.”

Skrufff: And why are so many clubbers continuing to support so many dull (big name) DJs playing dull music?

Mugwump: “That’s nothing to do with techno or house, it’s simply the essence of (big-room) clubbing and in the end that’s in the hands of the promotors too. And finally, you have dull DJs playing dull music in every scene : nu-disco, house, techno, everywhere.”

Skrufff: What’s the future for techno: where does it go from here?

Mugwump: “For me personally it lies in fusion, fusion and more fusion. With other styles of music, rock, pop, kraut, disco . . .everything. And in a continuous search for the less obvious. Let’s ride.”

Jonty Skrufff

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