Global Techno

By Oli Warwick

There will always be a debate around what exactly techno music is. As one of the prominent forms of electronic dance music, techno took form as a recognised genre in the 1980s, especially via the music being made by producers in Detroit as a continuation of the tradition of Black American dance music. As with all culture, this was an evolutionary progression from previous musical forms which then inspired further developments in the US and globally. Music has always traversed borders, adapting to local conditions and feeding back into the conversation in circular fashion, and it was no different with techno as it spread across the world. As well as a homogenous global phenomenon, it can also be viewed as a network comprised of hundreds, if not thousands, of smaller stories. These stories are populated with people for whom techno is, or was, their life - active participants in a shared experience that transcends the sound to become something more profound. In this book, Oli Warwick gathers together more than 10 years worth of interviews and features exploring vignettes within techno's labyrinthe legacy. From opposite ends of the USA to significant flash points across Europe, through Russia and on to the Far East and the Southern Hemisphere, some stories stand as individual curios while others criss-cross in an explicit depiction of techno's interconnected nature. Looking for lesser known stories outside the dominant narratives around dance music history, celebrating smaller provincial triumphs as well as influential artists and labels, this is but one angle to view techno from. Quite the opposite of definitive, it's simply a possible path through a culture that means so many different things to different people.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 191422860X
• ISBN13: 9781914228605
• Release Date: May 2023
• Publisher: Salamander Street Ltd.
• Length: 200 Pages