How much does Techno owe to E?

[Lost to the Void]

Most people out clubbing are out to get fucked, on whatever, and escape. It just seems a little less tribal and more indvidual now.

That doesn't mean they aren't intensely in to the music.
Not everyone gets off their face so they don't know what they are doing.
Same with booze.

Pretty much everyone I knew In my party hard days would party hard, cane it , come home to a room full of vinyl and then bang out the tunes for the rest of Sunday.
Thursday or Friday night in the record shop every other week etc
That was life in dance culture.
I'm hoping it is still the same for those at that stage of life.

[gedda]

Detroit was pretty clean back in the day, but you know that the Chicago folks that influenced them were on stuff.

[wouterdewitte]

I don't know ..
i do believe that the growth of techno happend faster due to drugs. And yes every music genre has its mind expanding substances which helps develop the music.
Non the less i also like to believe that techno would have made it on its own. I think (the) rhythm(s) trigger something in the human brain and the repetitiveness induces a trance-like state. I think it would have been invented and explored by those seeking the boundaries of music and the (electronic) instruments used..

Music is just a most wondrous phenomenon which holds power over and induces our psyche in ways we probably don't fully understand (yet)

I don't always use drugs when i am out partying but i do enjoy on occasion the extra dimension it provides me. And the best part for me is how intense the contact with other people and the music is..

[Lost to the Void]

I`m sure it is possible that techno (a sub niche of dance music) would exist without the drug culture that fertilised dance music culture, but it would be ultra niche.
Dance music as a whole exists due to a hedonistic, ritual cultural meme.

Mankind has, throughout all his history, gotten fucked (generally on plant substances) and danced ritually in most cultures. It`s wired in to us.

There is nothing wrong with it at all, apart from legally (legality is a concept), but ethically there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.

[vadoalfamedio]

Less than trance or gabba, for example. Techno wouldn't have existed if E hadn't become that cultural phenom (the whole dance music wouldn't), but I think it's the genre that emancipated the most from the dancefloor/drugs milieu to become another genre of experimental electronic music.
Back in the 90s, there was Joey Beltram but there was also Basic Channel and Global Communication, for example.

[Kolloid]

I think the spirit of rave is almost gone from clubland now. The unity, the underlying culture of questioning things. Now we have selfies on the dancefloor, clubs with 3 rooms of nothing but techno etc. It seems a little more cynical, a lot less "loving", more money driven, more business-ey and corportate.

Yeah, I think this is pretty true. Going to techno parties is almost a status thing for a lot of students here. You meet people who just love to say 'oh yeah I saw Ben Klock & blabla so amazing great DJ', and when you're actually out with them they're just focused on their trip, their friends & their phones. Just a convenience that a 4/4 kick is booming in the background so they can do their little dances. There was quite a riot here, people complaining at a recent event where Happa was closing, because he dropped some offbeat, non 4/4 kick tunes Can't do your dance to that!

Oh well. Not that I'm really complaining. Lots of great techno events everywhere, definitely a huge amount of real music lovers. C'est la vie

[Lag]

QFT all that Steve said. I remember when I started going out - everyone was on E. This energy and the PLUR is what really drew me to techno. The whole package. Energetic music, people going mental, everyone liking everyone... It was a sub-culture that no one knew about and was the best thing to have happened since the introduction of the LAN protocol (I fucking love video games), so it got me hooked. I don't do drugs but in general I'm a very slow, easy-going person so entering this temple of energy was a big enough shift for me to feel the pull which gave me lots of fun.

And then keta took over and parties became snorefests for me. I understand the appeal of tracks which don't have many things changing in them and no abrupt changes (Rrose - Waterfall being the best example of keta techno I think) but man oh man do I miss the times when this was the norm when it comes to club music:
youtu.be/D_ItAsfD3pA


Bottom line - the high-energy magic which came from E was defo a thing that pulled a lot of people in. I wish it came back big time. Go home keta, you are not party music.

[surface]

Let's also remember it's also the other way around hahaha

Think Mattias nailed it. I've never taken a pill in my life, not even a nibble. Would still buzz my tits off down the corridors of Tresor. How much does E owe to Techno?! If I 'm not wrong, it's a ww2 invention?! ..

[ashley BORG]

Bottom line - the high-energy magic which came from E was defo a thing that pulled a lot of people in. I wish it came back big time. Go home keta, you are not party music.

Amen to this. In London I've noticed it's more M-Cat than Ket. I don't know what the negative affects are of either. But I truly doubt either meets the high of a good pill.

[dylanlolwut]

If drugs never existed - Psytrance would of never existed haha

[Lag]

Relevant:

http://www.mixmag.net/words/features/ec ... g.comments

[jim_kezzle]

It was never about drugs for me. Even when I was going out to raves and stuff I only dabbled a few times. It really was, and still is, all about the music for me.

Same here. Stacey Pullen said it best. "If you need drugs then you really aren't about the music..."

I had the misfortune of meeting Stacey Pullen once, he was a complete wanker and his DJ set that followed was boring.
I'd be quite happy to say that if he had some drugs he might not have been such a boring twat.

[SFBM]

It was never about drugs for me. Even when I was going out to raves and stuff I only dabbled a few times. It really was, and still is, all about the music for me.

Same here. Stacey Pullen said it best. "If you need drugs then you really aren't about the music..."

I had the misfortune of meeting Stacey Pullen once, he was a complete wanker and his DJ set that followed was boring.
I'd be quite happy to say that if he had some drugs he might not have been such a boring twat.

Unfortunately, sometimes drugs can make boring people even more of a bore entirely :p. Had many a conversation at techno parties with first time pill takers who suddenly have to tell you their life story or a complete rundown of the week they've had..but hey, we've all had a first time, right ?

[tuuluuwag]

it took me 6 years to try E.. I never had the ambition to bother with it.. I played my music and ignored the tossers who gurned out and loved everyone. seeing some nutter gnaw his face off and bleed never appealed to me. After a big set in Toronto, I was given the opportunity to try it. As I was staying there, i took the chance.. although interesting, wasn't for me. I stuck with the music first and foremost...

[Lost to the Void]

Weird that opinions of E are that people only ever gurn and gnaw their faces off.

Whilst you did always get those that overdid it, when I was playing parties in the days where the E was of far higher quality and strength than it is on average today, what I mostly experienced was a party with an amazing, vibe. No chin stroking, everybody dancing, not shuffling, DANCING, totally immersed in the music, you could really lead them with sounds and frequencies. See them nearly leave the floor and take off when the high frequencies lifted them up, enhancing their rush. Knocking them back into the groove with some bass heavy stuff, so they are literally at one with the sound. The vibe at a party where good quality drugs were rife, best parties you will ever play in your life. Totally responsive crowd, totally releasing themselves to the music, so you can really take them on a journey. Full of energy, ecstacy (I mean emotionally, because that is where the drug got it`s name), and a general positive vibe.
It`s a little insulting to say the music was not first and foremost for those people.
they were the people who kept the scene alive, MADE it a scene. They were there buying the records, relentlessly following their fave acts/soundsystems/DJ`s

As for the experience. Well I don`t condone or condemn the use of E. In the same way I don`t condone or condemn people drinking tea or beer or bottled water. It`s just not an issue and also none of my business what someone decides to put in their body.
I will say that what it can do is enhance the music to a level that you cannot achieve straight.
It can take you to a point where there is only music and pure joy. Where the world is music, the music is in you and around you, completely consuming you, like it is actually a part of you, and you are sharing this experience with everyone around you, and you all feel as one, one tribe, all in the dance, belonging, secure and happy. Try telling me that the music is not first and foremost then. Pure hippy shit, but great none the less.

Of course you don`t NEED narcotics to enjoy music, but it can enhance it to a higher level.

In the same way, sex can be amazing, but sex on ecstacy, a whole other level, but it is still about the sex.

Fuck me, there is still some hippy in me apparently.

[tuuluuwag]

Weird that opinions of E are that people only ever gurn and gnaw their faces off.

I think the reason for it that usually they were the ones that made themselves noticeable. I don't mean to generalize E users.. I still know many to this day..
Knowing that 80% percent of the crowd is on E or K was the norm... and mostly an above average experience..

[Lost to the Void]

If any drug has ruined a party it is ketamine.
Followed very very closely by cocain, the drug that makes assholes out of saints.

[UN!T B]

Same here. Stacey Pullen said it best. "If you need drugs then you really aren't about the music..."

I had the misfortune of meeting Stacey Pullen once, he was a complete wanker and his DJ set that followed was boring.
I'd be quite happy to say that if he had some drugs he might not have been such a boring twat.[/quote]

When I met him I had a rather pleasant discussion with him. Seemed nice enough.
I also suspect he helped a friend of mine get some well deserve exposure which led to my friend moving up in the dj world...

[msl]

Yeah of course techno and all the rave/dance scenes exploded because of e's. Like Steve said e brought all the till then separate tribes together in the late 80's, and took the violence out of the equation, that was a very very big change. It even changed the fashion, baggy cloths etc. At those parties back then you had everyone together for the first time dancing, mods, goths, rockers, hooligans, northern soul kids you name it. And no matter what anyone says the e's were way way stronger back then. These days the wanderlust is gone, its mostly commercialised.

Like the summer 68 wouldn't of happened without LSD, the summer of 88 was fuelled by e.

.

[ashley BORG]

Of course you don`t NEED narcotics to enjoy music, but it can enhance it to a higher level.

In the same way, sex can be amazing, but sex on ecstacy, a whole other level, but it is still about the sex.

Totally agree on this point. It was years before I first dropped. But I can still remember my first time, and it was amazing.
Actually I can remember most of my great E experiences.

I always put the music first. But it's a great way of enhancing the vibe, and also providing the extra fuel to keep on going when the bodies natural reserves are gone.
Even now I never drop until a good few hours have passed in a club. It's better to immerse myself in the natural vibe of the night. Also if the night is shit (not often) I wont even bother. No point in wasting good gear.