Music
10 classic UK techno tracks that still sound like the future
From Underworld to Surgeon to Aphex Twin, a brace of dance floor smashers to level any rave.
Techno's spiritual home is in the suburbs of Detroit, where a young Juan Atkins and cohorts laid down its foundations in the mid-1980s. But the UK has become its second home, and UK producers have given the style various impure twists, mutating techno into acid house, rave and jungle.
There's also a wealth of records from this island which are unquestionably techno, most certainly British, and guaranteed dance floor smashers. Here are 10 of them.
1. LFO – LFO (Leeds Warehouse Mix) (Warp, 1990)
The debut single from LFO, a duo of Mark Bell and Gez Varley, was a defining moment for UK techno. At the time, a microscene known as 'bleep and bass' was developing in Yorkshire. It did what it said on the tin, and LFO were by no means the first (Unique 3, Forgemasters, Sweet Exorcist and Nightmares On Wax had all issued singles by this point). They were the breakout stars, though, selling hundreds of thousands of copies of their self-titled track, which drew equally on the freshest Detroit and Chicago club sounds, mid-80s electro, acid house and the industrial/dance hybrid of earlier Sheffield acts like Cabaret Voltaire. Production-wise, too, it still sounds astonishing and timeless.
2. Aphex Twin – Digeridoo (R&S, 1992)
This seven minutes of subtly shifting, sweetly brain-hammering repetition, with a hypnotically deep didgeridoo-style synth (not a sample) as its motif, could be seen as a precursor to Goa trance and similar hippy concerns. Being one of Richard D James's extraordinary early productions, though, it's a sight more weird and unsettling. This was about as intense as techno got at the time, and while James' later releases – Aphex Twin being only one of several monikers – would often travel far beyond the genre's boundaries, he can probably claim to be one of the most influential living electronic musicians.
3. Planetary Assault Systems – In From The Night (Peacefrog, 1993)
Brighton producer Luke Slater's first three EPs as Planetary Assault Systems stand out as one of the UK's earliest responses to the new breed of Detroit techno. The likes of Jeff Mills and Robert Hood were unleashing tracks which were intellectually-minded, yet fierce and punishing; In From The Night – side one, track one of the first PAS 12-inch – gives them a real run for their money. Formed from a devastating kickdrum, an acid-derived bassline and deliciously alien-sounding squawks of machine code, it's lush and widescreen without taking any prisoners.
4. Dave Clarke – Thunder (Deconstruction/Bush, 1995)
Taken from Red 3, the last in a trio of 12-inches which pretty much defined Dave Clarke as a big cheese in Brit techno, Thunder dispenses with fripperies and delivers a wedge of finest boshing madness. The combo of a brisk kick and pingpong bassline borders on hardcore at times, while the synth riff that creeps in from 2:00 onwards is dramatic and addictive. It's as high-octane and fun as its creator is moody and glowering – at least, behind the decks, where you can expect to find Clarke maintaining a straight face while he creates euphoria down below.
5. Underworld – Rowla (Junior Boys Own, 1996)
One of the grand old acts of British dance music, Underworld have always had a slightly complicated relationship with the techno scene. Much of their presentation is more akin to a rock band, especially during live sets – but Rowla, first heard on their Second Toughest In The Infants album, is an undeniable straight-up thumper. It's a builder too, mind, beginning as a proggy synth sweep before a taut funk bassline and chattering hi-hats enter the fray. Shorn of Karl Hyde's trademark vocals, Rowla still carries that Underworld stamp of excellence. Oh, and the version linked below is two minutes longer than the LP edit, and can be found (or not) on an impossibly rare promo 12-inch.
6. Neil Landstrumm – Blam The Target (Peacefrog, 1996)
Scottish hardware freak Neil Landstrumm emerged in the mid-90s with an off-centre wit – especially when it came to titling tracks – and an unconventional approach to techno production, showcased via releases on era-defining labels like Tresor and Peacefrog. This pick comes from an EP, Inhabit The Machines, and seems to live up to that name from the getgo. A forbidding, mechanised vocal repeats the title, occasionally pausing to demand “OPEN FIRE, FIRE AT WILL,” over frantic intensive-care-unit bleeps and a breakbeat that's both rough-edged and rolling. This style of production came to be known as “wonky techno”, which might not have been the greatest ever subgenre name but harboured some splendid (and very British) music.
7. Surgeon – Bad Hands (Dynamic Tension, 2007)
With a discography that would struggle to fit inside an average-sized record box, and a rare consistency and clarity of vision, the output of Birmingham's Anthony ' Surgeon' Child is essentially impossible to reduce to a single track. Still, Bad Hands is a typically clinical slice of modernist techno that feels primed to do damage in Berghain, the infamous Berlin club whose signature sound Surgeon helped define. It's underpinned, too, by an unsettling industrial ambience which betrays his love of cult experimental groups like Coil. A mix album titled This Is For You Shits, released on Warp around the time of this release, helped Surgeon find favour with the IDM crowd.
8. Regis – Blood Witness (Blackest Ever Black, 2011)
Karl 'Regis' O'Connor sprang from the same early 90s techno scene in Birmingham as Surgeon, and the pair have walked similar paths since – playing as a duo, in fact, the abrasive British Murder Boys. The increasing crossover of techno with noise and experimental music, of which BMB were an early example, has enabled Regis to reach the kind of listeners who check for techno-not-techno labels like Blackest Ever Black. The lead cut on a three-track EP, Blood Witness is made up of weirdly funky percussion, a cavernous bassline and the hum of a condemned powerplant. Not Regis at his hardest, but a sterling example of his craft.
9. Perc – A New Brutality (Perc Trax, 2012)
Although Ali Wells has been using the Perc name since the start of the century, and started his Perc Trax label in 2004, his earlier releases tended towards tech-house or minimal pastures – sleeker, less rambunctious affairs than this, the title track of a 2012 EP. The drum programming amounts to a monstrous stutter, the swirling synths are like a nightmarish flashback of mid-'90s trance (before trance got in the top 40) and there's muck and distortion all over the shop. It's a bit like a punk rock version of Richie Hawtin's Plastikman output, which is great. If you dig this, follow up with Perc's Wicker & Steel and The Power & The Glory albums.
10. Blawan – Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage? (Hinge Finger, 2012)
Recent years have also seen substantial crossbreeding between UK techno and dubstep – or, at least, acts who started out in the dubstep scene but took their sound somewhere excitingly different. Blawan, aka Jamie Roberts, had already produced one anthemic track prior to this – Getting Me Down, a riff on UK garage – but chanced on gold here with this slab of big dumb fun. Taking its title from the Fugees sample that forms its chantalong vocal refrain, Why They Hide… is stompy, 4/4 dayglo techno with a splash of creepy industrial drone. Its pop qualities were nonetheless such that Skrillex gave it an unofficial remix, to Blawan's chagrin.
Now listen to Blawan live in the mix at Red Bull Refractions.
Or check out this mix from techno progenitor Juan Atkins.