Chapter One

A Tale of Three Cities

46 records, in the order the book names them

• 001

  Autobahn

  Kraftwerk

  The story of techno begins not in early eighties Detroit, as is so often claimed, but in early seventies Dusseldorf, where Kraftwerk built their KlingKlang sound-factory and churned out pioneering synth-and-drum-machine tracks like ‘Autobahn’, ‘Trans-Europe Express’ and ‘The Man-Machine’.

  1974; Elektra 1985
  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 002

  Trans-Europe Express

  Kraftwerk

  The story of techno begins not in early eighties Detroit, as is so often claimed, but in early seventies Dusseldorf, where Kraftwerk built their KlingKlang sound-factory and churned out pioneering synth-and-drum-machine tracks like ‘Autobahn’, ‘Trans-Europe Express’ and ‘The Man-Machine’.

  Capitol 1977
  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 003

  The Man-Machine

  Kraftwerk

  The story of techno begins not in early eighties Detroit, as is so often claimed, but in early seventies Dusseldorf, where Kraftwerk built their KlingKlang sound-factory and churned out pioneering synth-and-drum-machine tracks like ‘Autobahn’, ‘Trans-Europe Express’ and ‘The Man-Machine’.

  Capitol, 1978
  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 004

  No UFOs

  Model 500

  Setting up his own label Metroplex, he put out ‘No UFOs’; the sound, Motor City motorik, was harder and faster than Cybotron, streamlined and austere, with ciphered vocals demoted low in the mix.

  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 005

  Let’s Go

  Todd Terry

  His first recording effort, ‘Let’s Go’ – effectively a collaboration with Atkins – was Metroplex’s third release on Metroplex.

  Sleeping Bag
  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 006

  It Is What It Is

  Derrick May

  On tracks like the elegantly elegaic ‘It Is What It Is’, he pioneered the use of quasi-symphonic string sounds.

  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 007

  Nude Photo

  Derrick May

  And we sort of took those other senses and enhanced them, and that’s how the music developed.’ Hence the oddly indefinable emotions in May’s tracks like ‘Nude Photo’ and ‘Beyond The Dance’, the weird mix of euphoria and anxiety.

  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 008

  Beyond The Dance

  Derrick May

  And we sort of took those other senses and enhanced them, and that’s how the music developed.’ Hence the oddly indefinable emotions in May’s tracks like ‘Nude Photo’ and ‘Beyond The Dance’, the weird mix of euphoria and anxiety.

  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 009

  The Sound

  Reese

  His tracks – released under a plethora of aliases, including Reese, Reese and Santonio, Inter City, Keynotes, and E-Dancer – had titles as baldly self-descriptive as the music was stripped down and coldly compulsive: ‘The Sound’, ‘How To Play Our Music’, ‘Forcefield’, ‘Rock To The Beat’, ‘Bassline’, ‘Funky, Funk, Funk’, ‘Let’s, Let’s, Let’s Dance’.

  KMS
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 010

  Just Want Another Chance

  Reese

  But he also produced the darkest avant-funk of the early Detroit era, with Reese’s ‘Just Want Another Chance’.

  Incognito
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 011

  Big Fun

  Inner City

  Displaying the kind of canny, market-conscious versatility that would characterize his whole career, Kevin Saunderson could also turn out tracks as light and upful as Inner City’s ‘Big Fun’ and ‘Good Life’ – to date, Detroit techno’s biggest hits.

  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 012

  Good Life

  Inner City

  Displaying the kind of canny, market-conscious versatility that would characterize his whole career, Kevin Saunderson could also turn out tracks as light and upful as Inner City’s ‘Big Fun’ and ‘Good Life’ – to date, Detroit techno’s biggest hits.

  both Ten
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 013

  Jackmaster

  Ralphi Rosario feat.Xavier Gold

  House had a metronomic, four-to-the-floor beat, what Eddie Fowlkes calls ‘a straight straight foot’ – a reference to ‘Farley’s Foot’, the mechanical kick drum that Chicago DJs like Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk and Frankie Knuckles would superimpose over their disco mixes.

  DJ International/Westside
  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 014

  Love Can’t Turn Around

  Farley 'Jackmaster' Funk & Jessie Saunders

  It was a DJ International track – Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk and Jesse Saunders’s ‘Love Can’t Turn Around’, a cover of an Isaac Hayes song – that became the first international house hit, making the UK Top Ten in September 1986.

  DJ International/London
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 015

  Carino

  T-Coy

  A Certain Ratio’s Simon Topping teamed up with another Mancunian avant-disco veteran, Quando Quango’s Mike Pickering, to record the Brit-house favourite ‘Carino’ as T. Coy; Pickering went on to lead the hugely popular but more songful M. People.

  Deconstruction
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 016

  You Used To Hold Me

  Ralphi Rosario feat.Xavier Gold

  Ralphi Rosario’s classic ‘You Used To Hold Me’ divides into two distinct halves.

  Hot Mix 5
  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 017

  Freedom

  Arpeggiators

  The Children’s ‘Freedom’ is a fraught plea for tolerance and fraternity.

  Harthouse
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 018

  Baby Wants To Ride

  Jamie Principle

  Jamie Principle’s ‘Baby Wants To Ride’ begins with a prayer from Principle, and then the Voice of God declaring that it’s time to relate ‘the Revelation of my Second Coming’.

  Trax
  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 019

  Washing Machine

  Mr Fingers

  But ironically, his most thrilling music took the form of the brutally dehumanized and machinic tracks – ‘Amnesia (Unknown Mix)’ and ‘Washing Machine’ – he released under the alias Mr Fingers.

  Trax
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 020

  Acid Tracks

  Phuture

  The first Chicago 303 track, Phuture’s ‘Acid Tracks’, was released in 1987 but recorded a couple of years earlier.

  Trax
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 021

  Your Only Friend

  Phuture

  In some ways even more eerily brilliant than ‘Acid Tracks’, ‘Your Only Friend’ personifies the drug as a robot-voiced Slavemaster, who introduces himself at the start with the words – ‘This is Cocaine speaking’ – then proceeds to relate just how far he’ll debase you: ‘I’ll make you lie for me / I’ll make you die for me / In the end, I’ll be your only friend.’ In the background, ectoplasmic wisps of hideously fey, enfeebled falsetto moan and whimper wordlessly, representing the addict languishing in the throes of withdrawal.

  Trax
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 022

  Donnie

  The It

  The It’s ‘Donnie’, a collaboration between Larry Heard and vocalist Harry Dennis, is the fever-dream of a love-junkie; Dennis’s stuttering vocals sound like he’s wracked by spasms and deep-body shudders.

  DJ International
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 023

  I’ve Lost Control

  Sleezy D

  By the end, Dennis is commiserating with a double-tracked doppelganger of himself, who’s even more aggrieved: ‘She ain’t even given me a chance to give her what I wanted to give her.’ Then there was Sleezy D’s ‘I’ve Lost Control’, whose creator Marshall Jefferson has said he was trying to achieve a mood similar to old Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin records.

  Trax
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 024

  Iron Man

  Search & Destroy

  I’ve lost it’, also recalls Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’.

  Mokum
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 025

  Machines

  Laurent X

  ‘I’ve Lost Control’ and ‘Donnie’ got carried along by the après Phuture deluge of 303-based acid tracks: Laurent X’s ‘Machines’, Armando’s ‘Land of Confusion’, Mike Dunn’s ‘Magic Feet’, Bam Bam’s ‘Where’s Your Child?’, Fast Eddie’s ‘Acid Thunder’, and scores more.

  Trax
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 026

  Land of Confusion

  Armando

  ‘I’ve Lost Control’ and ‘Donnie’ got carried along by the après Phuture deluge of 303-based acid tracks: Laurent X’s ‘Machines’, Armando’s ‘Land of Confusion’, Mike Dunn’s ‘Magic Feet’, Bam Bam’s ‘Where’s Your Child?’, Fast Eddie’s ‘Acid Thunder’, and scores more.

  Westbrook
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 027

  Magic Feet

  Mike Dunn

  ‘I’ve Lost Control’ and ‘Donnie’ got carried along by the après Phuture deluge of 303-based acid tracks: Laurent X’s ‘Machines’, Armando’s ‘Land of Confusion’, Mike Dunn’s ‘Magic Feet’, Bam Bam’s ‘Where’s Your Child?’, Fast Eddie’s ‘Acid Thunder’, and scores more.

  Westbrook
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 028

  Where’s Your Child?

  Bam Bam

  ‘I’ve Lost Control’ and ‘Donnie’ got carried along by the après Phuture deluge of 303-based acid tracks: Laurent X’s ‘Machines’, Armando’s ‘Land of Confusion’, Mike Dunn’s ‘Magic Feet’, Bam Bam’s ‘Where’s Your Child?’, Fast Eddie’s ‘Acid Thunder’, and scores more.

  Westbrook
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 029

  Acid Thunder

  Fast Eddie

  ‘I’ve Lost Control’ and ‘Donnie’ got carried along by the après Phuture deluge of 303-based acid tracks: Laurent X’s ‘Machines’, Armando’s ‘Land of Confusion’, Mike Dunn’s ‘Magic Feet’, Bam Bam’s ‘Where’s Your Child?’, Fast Eddie’s ‘Acid Thunder’, and scores more.

  DJ International
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 030

  Weekend

  Hawke

  He remixed classics like Taana Gardner’s ‘Heartbeat’ and Class Action’s ‘Weekend’, and co-founded The Peech Boys with synth-player Michael deBenedictus and singer Bernard Fowler.

  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 031

  Is It All Over My Face

  Loose Joints

  Russell’s 1980 Loose Joints track ‘Is It All Over My Face’ was a Paradise Garage favourite.

  West End
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 032

  Deep Inside

  Hardrive

  If one word could sum up the garage aesthetic, it’s ‘deep’; hence tracks like Hardrive’s ‘Deep Inside’, and band names like Deep Dish.

  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 033

  Generate Power

  Photon Inc

  Strictly Rhythm was where DJ Pierre ended up working as an A & R director and developed his ‘fractal’ Wild Pitch production style – based around tweaking EQ levels, using filtering effects and constantly adjusting levels in the mix – as heard on classics like Photon Inc’s ‘Generate Power’ and Phuture’s ‘Rise From Your Grave’.

  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 034

  Rise From Your Grave

  Phuture

  Strictly Rhythm was where DJ Pierre ended up working as an A & R director and developed his ‘fractal’ Wild Pitch production style – based around tweaking EQ levels, using filtering effects and constantly adjusting levels in the mix – as heard on classics like Photon Inc’s ‘Generate Power’ and Phuture’s ‘Rise From Your Grave’.

  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 035

  Hypnotize Me (Trance Mix)

  House 2 House

  Early Strictly Rhythm is also notable for the brimming, aqueous production on tracks like House 2 House’s ‘Hypnotize Me (Trance Mix)’, all gulf-stream currents of blood-temperature synth and bubble trails of mermaid-diva vocal.

  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 036

  Alright Alright

  Masters At Work

  The Masters of Work name was a gift from Todd Terry, who’d used it for his early tracks ‘Alright Alright’ and ‘Dum Dum Cry’.

  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 037

  Dum Dum Cry

  Masters At Work

  The Masters of Work name was a gift from Todd Terry, who’d used it for his early tracks ‘Alright Alright’ and ‘Dum Dum Cry’.

  both Fourth Floor
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 038

  This Brutal House

  Nitro Deluxe

  Their 1987 track ‘This Brutal House’ had a huge impact in Britain, and eventually made the Top Thirty in early 1988 as a remix, ‘Let’s Get Brutal’.

  Cutting/Cooltempo
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 039

  Let’s Get Brutal

  Nitro Deluxe

  Their 1987 track ‘This Brutal House’ had a huge impact in Britain, and eventually made the Top Thirty in early 1988 as a remix, ‘Let’s Get Brutal’.

  Cooltempo
  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 040

  Can You Party

  Royal House

  Plus you make twice the money off of tracks, [because] they’re quicker.’ Lacking both the artistic pretensions of the Detroit aesthetes and the soul-affiliated spirituality of the deep house and garage producers, Terry has proved that mercenary motives can result in great popular art like Royal House’s ‘Can You Party’ and ‘Party People’, Orange Lemon’s ‘Dreams of Santa Anna’, Black Riot’s ‘A Day In The Life’ and CLS’s ‘Can You Feel It?’

  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 041

  Dreams of Santa Anna

  Orange Lemon

  Plus you make twice the money off of tracks, [because] they’re quicker.’ Lacking both the artistic pretensions of the Detroit aesthetes and the soul-affiliated spirituality of the deep house and garage producers, Terry has proved that mercenary motives can result in great popular art like Royal House’s ‘Can You Party’ and ‘Party People’, Orange Lemon’s ‘Dreams of Santa Anna’, Black Riot’s ‘A Day In The Life’ and CLS’s ‘Can You Feel It?’

  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 042

  A Day In The Life

  Black Riot

  Plus you make twice the money off of tracks, [because] they’re quicker.’ Lacking both the artistic pretensions of the Detroit aesthetes and the soul-affiliated spirituality of the deep house and garage producers, Terry has proved that mercenary motives can result in great popular art like Royal House’s ‘Can You Party’ and ‘Party People’, Orange Lemon’s ‘Dreams of Santa Anna’, Black Riot’s ‘A Day In The Life’ and CLS’s ‘Can You Feel It?’

  Champion
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 043

  Can You Feel It?

  Mr Fingers

  Plus you make twice the money off of tracks, [because] they’re quicker.’ Lacking both the artistic pretensions of the Detroit aesthetes and the soul-affiliated spirituality of the deep house and garage producers, Terry has proved that mercenary motives can result in great popular art like Royal House’s ‘Can You Party’ and ‘Party People’, Orange Lemon’s ‘Dreams of Santa Anna’, Black Riot’s ‘A Day In The Life’ and CLS’s ‘Can You Feel It?’

  Trax
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 044

  Party People

  Royal House

  Plus you make twice the money off of tracks, [because] they’re quicker.’ Lacking both the artistic pretensions of the Detroit aesthetes and the soul-affiliated spirituality of the deep house and garage producers, Terry has proved that mercenary motives can result in great popular art like Royal House’s ‘Can You Party’ and ‘Party People’, Orange Lemon’s ‘Dreams of Santa Anna’, Black Riot’s ‘A Day In The Life’ and CLS’s ‘Can You Feel It?’

  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 045

  Hip House

  Fast Eddie

  Others, like Fast Eddie’s ‘Hip House’ and ‘Yo Yo get Funky’, combined house rhythms and 303 acid-pulses with James Brown samples, sound effects, and breakbeats.

  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 046

  Hardcore Hip House

  Tyree

  Perhaps the best of the bunch was Tyree’s ‘Hardcore Hip House’, with its weird blend of funky drummer shuffle beats, house piano vamps, and Tyree rapping about how ‘hip house is soon to be / the giant in the industry’.

  DJ International
  track Open ↗ YouTube