Some Detroit Techno Basics

Coming into this class, I’ve actually managed to get through two-plus decades of life and never really learn anything about techno music.  I figured starting small would be appropriate.

 I found this really helpful NPR article that touched on early essentially techno works specifically from Detroit..  It’s likely a lot of you guys have heard some of this stuff.  I haven’t, so this was definitely a good place to start.

I was struck by "No UFOs" by Model 500 (1985) .  In response to last class’s discussion on how to achieve an active performance while still adhering to the traditions of repetition that are somewhat inherent to techno as genre (if, of course, we feel it’s important to explicitly define techno), I felt this was a fairly solid example of a piece that illustrates one of many potential solutions to that concern.  There is a ton of repetition, but the piece deftly uses a gradualistic evolution in rhythm elements, textural content, harmonic modulation, and dynamic progression, all which contribute to a very musical (and in my opinion highly successful) piece of music.  Using this particular example’s solution, the next step would likely involve exploring the questions of how we take interfaces of making electronic tonalities, and shape them in ways that allow them to be played by humans in a humanistic way—that is,I and/or a group can play (mostly) electronic instruments and, in real time, shape its rhythmic, textural, harmonic, and dynamic content in musical ways.  Creating electronic music can certainly be largely a conceptual exercise in timbre, but it’s important not to treat the creation of a desired timbre as a finish line.

Visual augmentation of musical elements is a pretty common today, especially within these genres.  For me, it’s hugely important that if we featured visual elements, that we not simply include them for their own sake.  I personally have found visuals in a musical setting to be distracting from the musical experience more often than not, and so it’s essential that those elements, if included, have a specific intent that is integral to the musical work.