Techno is technological music. Techno attempts to define itself apart from everything else, rebelliously proclaiming independence. Techno is a mix of the old and the new. Techno creates a space in which musical inhibitions and conventions have no place. Techno is the world in which we live, the buzzing pulsing world of computers and everyday gadgets.

Techno is everytime you push the button on the washing machine and send signals racing through the microchip controlling the wash cycles.

A little dramatic perhaps, but the point I want to make is that Techno is anything but strictly defined. I suppose, if we must really place it in a category, it is music which is made possible through the innovative use of new musical technologies. Though, what defines new is often a
conundrum in itself. That sine wave mutation you hear spinning over hard beats is made possible by the use of old synthesizer technology. The Moogs of yesterday making a comeback today. And the looped phat beats you dance to might be the very latest in PowerMac audio architecture and sculpting software tools. No valves and large dusty knobs there.

In one sense Techno looks to the past for inspiration and utilises new electronic tools for expression. In quite another it becomes the cutting edge of tomorrow's new sound.

What is clear is that it is a form of music which expresses vastly different musical personalities. It can be banal and hedonistic or astral and sentimental. I see it as the summation of all that has been. The ultimate post modern experiment in sound. A colourful canvas of wildly different sonic ideas. A grab for the perfect sound, the perfect effect, in a world which continues to increase its novelty value, each day accelerating faster.
 

Steve