Various – Techno! The New Dance Sound Of Detroit

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.

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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
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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 first techno CD ever, legend.

This is a very overrated compilation that gets older everytime I listen to it. I agree with mjb that many of the tracks sound like house and are very dated tracks. Listen to Black Baxter - Forever And A Day or K.S Experience - Electronic Dance which are some of the tracks I least liked from this compliation. They get older, older and older the more times I listen to them. Not saying this compilation is bad. Some tracks like Rythim Is Rhythim - It Is What It Is and Juan - Techno Music while nearly as outdated as pretty much everything in this compilation are quite enjoyble and are still somewhat nostalgic. And let's not forget about Inner City - Big Fun which is considered one of the most commercially successful techno tracks in the history of the genre. Not a bad CD to pickup mainly because it has quite a bit of history.

Although its importance in the history of dance music, and of techno in particular, cannot be understated, this incestuous compilation is not exactly brimming with the most innovative sounds and engaging compositions. With the exception of the #1 club hit Big Fun, the tunes are not very well constructed or at all memorable, perhaps a reason why it only attained modest sales when it was new.

Listeners may be further surprised to hear how housey and dated the tracks are. This situation largely owes to the fact that the fledgling Detroit aesthetic, at the time, was nearly overwhelmed by the influence of the house music of nearby Chicago, and by 1988, repetitive, incongruous samples were all the rage. In fact, the word Dance in the album title was originally going to be House until the last-minute inclusion of the song Techno Music, a Speak-n-Spell sample-laden electro-house demo which is cute, but hardly a gem in the Juan Atkins repertoire.

Further detracting from the listening experience, at least with headphones, is the fact that 7 of the 12 tracks, including Big Fun, are recorded in mono, their only stereo content seeming to be just artifacts of analogue transfers.

Nevertheless, the tracks on this compilation fit right in with the rest of the 1987 and 1988 releases by the same crew, and it clearly inspired UK producers like Bizarre Inc, Nexus 21, and A Guy Called Gerald.

A must for any serious techno collector, and incidentally, the first time ever that the term 'techno' was used on a commercial album release.

It's roar, original techno, Oldskool pure and simple. If you haven't heard it then you haven't really experienced techno.

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Legend has it that when Ten Records in the UK wanted to release their famous compilation of Detroit underground dance music in 1988, the Belleville Three were asked to come up with a name to differentiate the Detroit sound from the one happening simultaneously in Chicago. Atkins insisted that his music be called “techno” and needless to say, it stuck, giving the movement its name and making Atkins the default “Godfather of Techno.”

This was one of the first Detroit techno records ever exported from the US. A representative of the record company came to visit Derrick (May) in Detroit and compiled a "who´s who" album of Detroit techno masters. The last track to be put on this album was Inner City´s Big Fun which became an enormous hit.
More inside scoop on this issue and the techno scene´s birth in general can be found in the excellent book "Techno rebels" by Dan Sicko. If you´re into early techno, it is a must-read! I´ve just finished it and it was brilliant!

This is seminal compilation. Legend has it that the artists were asked how to distinguish their music from the sounds coming from Chicago and Juan Atkins said call it Techno, giving birth to the term. Supposedly Derrick May was against it.