chassis ground · 13 · a.c. only cat. stp–008

Chapter Three

time to express

Techno’s first artists emerge, 1981–1989

the record

in the order he names them

21 releases

  1. 01 cybotronalleys of your mindCybotron’s first single, “Alleys of Your Mind,” was released in 1981, apparently just after the landmark “Sharevari.” single
  2. 02 a number of namessharevariCybotron’s first single, “Alleys of Your Mind,” was released in 1981, apparently just after the landmark “Sharevari.” single
  3. 03 cybotroncosmic cars“Alleys of Your Mind” and its follow-up, “Cosmic Cars,” got a lot of local radio play, as well as unit sales in the tens of thousands. single
  4. 04 afrika bambaataa & the soulsonic forceplanet rockAfrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force—a group based in New York and backed by the great band Planet Patrol and producer Arthur Baker—took their love of Kraftwerk to extremes with “Planet Rock,” a song that became the ultimate electro … single
  5. 05 kraftwerktrans-europe expressRecorded in 1982, “Planet Rock” was built on the melody of Kraftwerk’s “Trans-Europe Express” and had a drum pattern similar to that in “Numbers,” another Kraftwerk classic. single
  6. 06 cybotrontechno cityDavis wanted to take the group’s sound in a more rock-based direction and, what’s more, the difference between “Clear” and its follow-up, “Techno City,” was too great for Atkins: “I was against that record [‘Techno City’]. single
  7. 07 beastie boyslicensed to illNo one could have predicted the success of records like Run-DMC’s “It’s Like That” in 1983 or the Beastie Boys’ smash album Licensed to Ill in 1986. album
  8. 08 model 500no ufosIn 1985, a year after the release of “Techno City” and his departure from the group, Atkins took a track supposedly planned for Cybotron—“No UFOs”—and used it to launch Metroplex Records. single
  9. 09 model 500night drive (thru babylon)Atkins’s dedication to his new record label and a series of electro tracks, such as “Night Drive (Thru Babylon)” and “Technicolor,”3 gave way to more straight four-count disco beats as early house sounds began to find their way into … single
  10. 10 model 500play it coolAtkins’s dedication to his new record label and a series of electro tracks, such as “Night Drive (Thru Babylon)” and “Technicolor,”3 gave way to more straight four-count disco beats as early house sounds began to find their way into … single
  11. 11 eddie ‘flashin’ fowlkesgoodbye kissNot until 1987 would Metroplex have its first proper “techno” success, with “Goodbye Kiss” by Eddie Fowlkes. single
  12. 12 x-raylet’s goNot that this was apparent with Transmat’s first twelve-inch single, “Let’s Go.” single
  13. 13 rhythim is rhythimnude photoMay’s next song, however, would come to define techno more than any borrowed term from Alvin Toffler ever could. “Nude Photo,” released in 1987 under May’s new Rhythim Is Rhythim moniker, represented a totally different approach from that … single
  14. 14 rhythim is rhythimstrings of lifeMay’s most famous work, however, is his 1987 record “Strings of Life,” built around his friend Michael James’s piano licks and sampled strings from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. single
  15. 15 rhythim is rhythimbeyond the danceMay went on to add new dimensions and colors with releases like “Beyond the Dance” and “The Beginning,” taking techno in dozens of new directions at once single
  16. 16 rhythim is rhythimthe beginningMay went on to add new dimensions and colors with releases like “Beyond the Dance” and “The Beginning,” taking techno in dozens of new directions at once single
  17. 17 inner citybig funStill tinkering in his basement studio, Saunderson enlisted the help of James “Jit” Pennington and Art Forrest, who respectively came up with the rhythm and melody for “Big Fun,” an upbeat pop/house crossover tune. single
  18. 18 inner citygood lifePennington, Forrest, and Roy Holmon (who cowrote the follow-up single “Good Life”) were apparently paid musician’s scale for their work, which was fine in the meantime—“Big Fun” hadn’t become a huge hit just yet. single
  19. 19 inner cityain’t nobody betterBig Fun, the album, was released in 1989 and spawned a total of four singles (“Big Fun,” “Good Life,” “Ain’t Nobody Better,” and “Do You Love What You Feel”), all of which reached No. single
  20. 20 inner citydo you love what you feelBig Fun, the album, was released in 1989 and spawned a total of four singles (“Big Fun,” “Good Life,” “Ain’t Nobody Better,” and “Do You Love What You Feel”), all of which reached No. single
  21. 21 parliamenttrombipulationMy thing was trying to learn how to make music and the only reason I got into electronic music was . . . that the early 1980s R&B just sucked. [I didn’t like] the last Parliament Record, Trombipulation, so I started finding out about these … album

technorebels

An unofficial reader’s listening index to Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk by Dan Sicko (Wayne State University Press, revised edition 2010).

Sicko’s book carries no discography, so every record here was found in the text itself, listed in the order he names it, each with the sentence that introduces it.

Links run YouTube searches, so they resolve in any country. Records belong to their artists and labels. Cover design and jacket artwork remain the property of their rights holders; the drawings here are original work in that idiom.

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