Various – Techno! (The New Dance Sound Of Detroit)

Techno? This is not techno. Techno came from Belgium during 1990-1991 (with stabs & hoovers), with some few first techno releases also from Italy and NYC in 1990. But techno music generally started in Europe 2 years later than this release, just after the new-beat / acid house era.

This is Detroit's pre-house music. There is not such a thing as Detroit techno. Chicago & Detroit invented proto-house in the 80's. Nothing else.
I expect many arguments here, but that's my opinion.

Arguably this is the most important electronic music compilation ever.

Does anyone have Neil Rushtons phone number or email address lmao.
This needs a REPRESS on lp as well as 2 x 12" versions with maybe rare unreleased versions or even instrumentals where needed BUT no crappy remix projects..
That also goes for the second lp from 1990.
Plus a 12" sized booklet with rare photos and maybe slipmats and t shirts , car stickers, posters and maybe some bubble gum etc etc.

Rushton 10 Records where the f... are you at?

The year is 2022 and somehow I am only just hearing this album for the first time, and my mind is being blown. How in the name of all that is good and holy did Juan 'Techno Music' not qualify for its own release!? It's like the perfect marriage of Kraftwerk and Techno...

It's a shame that after all these years; K.S. Experience - Electronic Dance, A Tongue & D Groove - Feel Surreal, Mia Hesterley - Spark, Juan - Techno Music, Blake Baxter - Ride Em Boy, Shakir - Sequence 10, Idol Making - Un, Deux, Trois have ended up staying exclusive to this compilation. They deserved their own individual releases in my opinion. With nice loud pressings. I'll keep dreaming.

Firstly. I've always preferred the version of Feel Surreal on here compared to the 12" version under the Rhythim Is Rhythim moniker, even though that's a classic in it's own right and I still love it. The other version might be slightly more straightforward to mix, but this one has even more atmosphere. Chilling mind expanding stuff. Underground DJs during '88/'89 must've played some of the exclusive tunes from this release (as well as the standalone Rhythim Is Rhythim 12") because I the Tongue & D-Groove version played on more than one occasion due to hearing the spine tingling intro.

Juan - Techno Music is a bonafide, ever recognisable and typically Juan Atkins in style and another personal favourite of mine and desperately needs to be released.

Also. Un, Deux, Trois defies the times by at least a couple of years. Abstract, trippy, futuristic, rhythmic, funk fuelled. Even a bit underrated perhaps?

UK summers of 1988/89? ''It Is What It Is'' must be the the one which brings things all back for me :-)

Another thing to point out is the mix of 'Rythim Is Rythim - It Is What It Is' is unique to this compilation as it's slighty different to the actual 12 inch release, and better in my opinion. I think I read somewhere that it was just thrown on there as a filler because there wasn't enough tracks for the compilation!

A genre defining compilation at the time, which helped to shape a lot of people musically, including me. Some of you slating tracks from it, were you even around and hearing them in the clubs & party’s or just spouting your ‘opinion’ based on nothing but your ‘taste’ some 30 years later? Every single one of the tracks on this album played it’s part, nobody cares about your opinion. 👊🏼💥😂

The first techno compilation was Techno! The New Dance Sound Of Detroit. In 1987, UK Northern Soul DJ and journalist Neil Rushton was into the distinctive sound and called the Detroit phone number on a Transmat release and found himself speaking to Derrick May. In December Derrick came to the UK and stayed at Neil's place. Later Neil, and journalists Stuart Cosgrove and John McCready visited Detroit where they met Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson. Neil compiled the tracks and sold the concept to Virgin records who released it in May 1988. The tentative title was 'The New House Sound of Detroit' but after the late entry of Juan's track 'Techno Music' it was changed to describe their whole style.

Stuart Cosgrove wrote the extensive liner notes where he described techno as "one of the most experimental forms of music black america has ever produced". He also wrote a piece for the May 1988 issue of The Face promoting the compilation and John McCready did the same for NME shortly after. None of the tracks had been released on CD before. They ranged from Derrick's flamboyant strings on "It is what it is" to the more commercial appeal of Inner City's "Big Fun". It sold over a million copies as a single.

Despite the major label backing, magazine articles and a London launch event featuring Boy George and Soul II Soul's Jazzy B, the compilation itself didn't sell that well. The story and idea of techno however took off from here and provided the blueprint for much that followed.

-----

The origins of this compilation are recounted by Neil Rushton here:
http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/07/neil-rushton-interview

Stuart Cosgrove also wrote a piece for the May 1988 issue of The Face at the time:
http://testpressing.org/2010/10/the-face-detroit-dance/

John McCready wrote for New Musical Express on 16 July 1988
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/apr/30/techno-detroit-music-of-the-future-classic-feature
-----

Stuart Cosgrove's liner notes:

think of detroit and you automatically think of motown, but be careful not to think too loud because the new grandmasters of detroit techno hate history.

juan atkins, 26 years old, and the self proclaimed captain of the techno sound is an articulate enemy of motown's supreme being. "berry gordy built the motown sound on the same principle as the conveyor belt at the ford plant. today the automobile plants use robots and computers to make their cars and i'm more interested in fords robots than gordy's music."

techno music is unashamedly modern in it's out-look. it is a mesmerising underground of new music which looks to the future, breaks with the past and blends european industrial pop with black american garage funk. according to derrick may, the immensely gifted young producer who works under the pseudonyms rhythim is rhythim and mayday, his music goes "beyond the beat". it is not simply dance music but a series of sound experiments that often defy the logic of more uncomplicated dance sounds like chicago house.

the origins of techno date back to the late 70's to the supressed identity of european synthesiser groups like kraftwerk and yello and to british electronic funk groups like heaven 17, new order and the human league. their music established the synthesiser as the creative core of new music, encouraging a whole generation of young musicians to turn their basements into makeshift studios. unknown to europe the ears of black america were listening with increasing facsination reversing the age-old flow of musical influence.

in west detroit, juan atkins a student at the city's belleville high school and an obsessive fan of kraftwerk, began to compose basic drum patterns on an old roland d115 eventually graduating to more complex synthesiser tracks which borrowed heavily from europe.

juan's first group cybotron released several records at the height of the electro-funk boom in the early 80's, the most succesful being a truly progressive homage to the city of detroit simply entitled 'techno city'. at the time he believed the record was a unique and adventurous piece of synthesiser funk, more in tune with than the rest of black america, but on a dispiriting visit to new york, juan heard afrika bambaataa's 'planet rock' and realised that his vision of a spartan electronic dance sound had been upstaged.

he returned to detroit to renew his friendship with 2 younger students from belleville high, kevin saunderson and derrick may, and quietly over the next few years the three of them became the creative backbone of detroit techno.

most of the tracks on this lp are the work of the belleville 3, juan's 'techno music' and the kevin saunderson experience's 'electronic dance' reflect the basic studio beat of techno, whilst derrick may's rhythim is rhtyhim track takes the music into the most unlikely areas turning new age ambience and film-soundtrack instrumentation into complex dance music.

derrick may is undoubtedly the philosopher of techno! he sees the music as post-soul and believes it marks a deliberate break with previous traditions of black american music. "the music is just like detroit" he claims, "a complete mistake, it's like george clinton and kraftwerk are stuck in an elevator with only a sequencer to keep them company."

amidst the experimental strangeness of this album are other more obviously commercial dance records. 'share this house' by of the house which actually features george clinton as an uncredited visiting producer, takes its main influences from the chicago jack virus.

inevitably the detroit techno sound will be compared to the music of the nearby city of chicago,a problem that neither angers nor concerns the producers of techno! blake baxter, detroit's soft spoken sex symbol, and the whispered mind behind the promiscous 'ride em boys', has already had several hits in the chicago area, and derrick may's best known records to date - 'nude photo' & 'strings' - were instrumental in taking chicago's music into the abstract and lysergic mood now described as 'acid house.'

but derrick believes there's a huge differance between chicago house and detroit techno! "it's a question of respect, house still has it's heart in 70's disco, we don't have any of that respect for the past, it's strictly future music. we have a much greater aptitude for experimentation."

techno is undoubtedly the music of detroit but it has none of the latter day optimism of motown. the city is reflected in the music in an unsettling way. "factories are closing and people are drifting away" says derrick, "the old industrial detroit is falling apart, the structures have collapsed. it's the murder capital of america. six year olds carry guns and thousands of black people have stopped caring if they ever work again. if you make music in that environment it can't be straight music. in britain you have new order, well our music is the new disorder."

techno's sudden shift of tempo and relentless war on familiarity makes it sound like free form jazz for the computer era. it may well be the music of the new disorder but it promises to george clinton's funkadelia and prince's minneapolis sound as one of the most experimental forms of music black america has ever produced.

The only weak side to this compilation is Of The House - 'Share This House'. IMHO, it really shouldn't have been included on this compilation.

Of course Inner-City* Featuring Kevin Saunderson Big Fun is a classic...

Back then and now..

But then came this comp!

Thanks Neil Rushton

Our faves were...

Rythim Is Rythim* It Is What It Is.. Ambient and head chilling!
Blake Baxter Forever And A Day... Those strings or whatever they were...More please of them!
Blake Baxter Ride Em Boy.. A cold pumping tune!
A Tongue & D Groove Feel Surreal.... Sounds that made you forget what you were doing !
Idol Making Un, Deux, Trois... This used to weird us out in a good way!... Stark!
Juan* Techno Music..... Something else! A very something else...

And so so many more shaped my then little knowledge of what on earth was going on!
The pills helped too!
But that was later in 89!
Back in 88 it was one beer and many spliffs between us 3 teenagers from a tiny bedroom that was more like a space ship than mere sleeping quarters!

The world is flat?
Hmmmm maybe maybe not... ---- ....()....

It is what it is!

Either way music shapes it! And us....
Either way it helps us does it not?

We're having BIG FUN! ;)

Peace..