Like A Tim - Red & Blue Boxing - Rephlex - Euro Techno

Information on the Euro Techno Genre

Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan, US during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988. Many styles of techno now exist, this genre encompasses releases from Europe.

In Berlin, following the closure of a free party venue called UFO, the club Tresor opened in 1991. The venue was for a time the standard bearer for techno and played host to many of the leading Detroit producers, some of whom relocated to Berlin. By 1993, as interest in techno in the UK club scene started to wane, Berlin was considered the unofficial techno capital of Europe.

Although eclipsed by Germany, Belgium was another focus of second-wave techno in this time period. The Ghent-based label R&S Records embraced harder-edged techno by "teenage prodigies" like Beltram and C.J. Bolland, releasing "tough, metallic tracks...with harsh, discordant synth lines that sounded like distressed Hoovers," according to one music journalist.

Germany's engagement with American EDM during the 1980s paralleled that in the UK. By 1987 a German party scene based around the Chicago sound was well established. The following year (1988) saw acid house making as significant an impact on popular consciousness in Germany as it had in England. In 1989 German DJs Westbam and Dr. Motte established UFO, an illegal party venue, and co-founded the Love Parade. After the Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989, free underground techno parties mushroomed in East Berlin, and a rave scene comparable to that in the UK was established. East German DJ Paul van Dyk has remarked that techno was a major force in reestablishing social connections between East and West Germany during the unification period.

In 1991 a number of party venues closed, including UFO, and the Berlin Techno scene centered itself around three locations close to the foundations of the Berlin Wall: Planet (later renamed E-Werk by Paul van Dyk), Der Bunker, and the relatively long-lived Tresor. It was in Tresor at this time that a trend in paramilitary clothing was established (amongst the techno fraternity) by a DJ named Tanith; possibly as an expression of a commitment to the underground aesthetic of the music, or perhaps influenced by UR's paramilitary posturing. In the same period German DJs began intensifying the speed and abrasiveness of the sound, as an acid infused techno began transmuting into hardcore. DJ Tanith commented at the time that: Berlin was always hardcore, hardcore hippie, hardcore punk, and now we have a very hardcore house sound. At the moment the tracks I play are an average one hundred and thirty-five beats per minute and every few months we add fifteen more. This emerging sound is thought to have been influenced by Dutch gabber and Belgian hardcore; styles that were in their own perverse way paying homage to Underground Resistance and Richie Hawtin's Plus 8 Records. Other influences on the development of this style were European Electronic Body Music groups of the mid-1980s such as DAF, Front 242, and Nitzer Ebb. In Germany, fans referred to this sound as 'Tekkno' (or 'Bretter').


In 1993, the German techno label Tresor Records released the compilation album Tresor II: Berlin & Detroit – A Techno Alliance, a testament to the influence of the Detroit sound upon the German techno scene and a celebration of a "mutual admiration pact" between the two cities. As the mid-90s approached Berlin was becoming a haven for Detroit producers; Jeff Mills and Blake Baxter even resided there for a time. In the same period, with the assistance of Tresor, Underground Resistance released their X-101/X-102/X103 album series, Juan Atkins collaborated with 3MB's Thomas Fehlmann and Moritz Von Oswald and Tresor affiliated label Basic Channel had taken to having their releases mastered by Detroit's National Sound Corporation; the main mastering house for the entire Detroit dance music scene. In some sense popular electronic music had come full circle; Düsseldorf's Kraftwerk having been a primary influence on the electronic dance music of the 1980s. The dance sounds of Chicago also had a German connection as it was in Munich that Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte had first produced the 1970s Eurodisco synth pop sound.