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

Chapter Four

nation to nation

Finding a home in Britain’s rave culture, 1988–1991

the record

in the order he names them

18 releases

  1. 01 steve “silk” hurleyjack your bodySteve “Silk” Hurley’s “Jack Your Body” was a hit, the catalogs of DJ International, Trax, and Dance Mania were being combed by British DJs, and house artist Frankie Knuckles had even been interviewed by the British music magazine NME. single
  2. 02 juan atkinstechno musicAtkins turned in a song called “Techno Music,” which used the same integration of speech synthesis Kraftwerk had used throughout its 1981 album Computer World. single
  3. 03 kraftwerkcomputer worldAtkins turned in a song called “Techno Music,” which used the same integration of speech synthesis Kraftwerk had used throughout its 1981 album Computer World.1 album
  4. 04 various artiststechno! the new dance sound of detroitRushton was instantly prompted to change the compilation’s title to Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit album
  5. 05 inner citybig funIronically, the song that carried the compilation to its initial prominence was another late add-on—Inner City’s “Big Fun.” single
  6. 06 various artiststechno 2: the next generationDespite the first Techno! compilation’s lukewarm reception, there was enough interest and impetus for Virgin to release a follow-up compilation, Techno 2: The Next Generation, in 1990. album
  7. 07 phutureacid traxPhuture’s single “Acid Trax,” released in 1987, featured the 303 in the fore-front and Chicago’s trademark bare-bones drum sound underneath. single
  8. 08 baby fordford traxFord’s first album, Ford Trax, wasn’t so much an album as a collection of his finest dance tracks (as the title might suggest). album
  9. 09 baby fordchikki chikki ahh ahh“Flowers” and “Chikki Chikki Ahh Ahh” were incredibly dense, psychedelic, and positive singles—even more so than some of the first-generation Chicago acid house offerings. single
  10. 10 baby fordooo, the world of baby fordFord’s follow-up, Ooo, the World of Baby Ford, while perhaps not as successful as Moore’s Original Soundtrack, showed that dance music could cross over, be successful, and still be inventive. album
  11. 11 k. alexi shelbyall for lee-sahMay’s Transmat label released the mind-blowing acid EP All for Lee-sah from Chicago artist K. album
  12. 12 kevin saundersonrock to the beatThe success of Saunderson’s 1989 record “Rock to the Beat”—one of the starkest, bleakest techno records—fit perfectly with the slower new beat tempo, giving Saunderson a second international success independent of and parallel to that of … single
  13. 13 forgemasterstrack with no nameMitchell and Beckett also shared Cybotron’s less-than-humble beginnings, selling ten thousand copies of their first release, Forge-masters’ “Track with No Name.” single
  14. 14 sweet exorcisttestoneWarp’s third record, Sweet Exorcist’s “Test One” (sometimes spelled “Testone” and pronounced “test tone”),10 solidified Warp’s success and defined Sheffield’s techno sound. single
  15. 15 yellow magic orchestracomputer gamesReleased in 1990, “Test One” married the sounds of Yellow Magic Orchestra’s 1980 classic “Computer Games” with a playful use of sampled dialogue from the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind: “Is everybody ready on the dark side of the … single
  16. 16 orbitalchimeOrbital became the perfect assimilation of raw synthesized din, Detroit sentimentality, and raver spirituality—a process that began with a small run of one thousand copies of its first single, “Chime.” single
  17. 17 rhythim is rhythimstrings of lifeThere were already a good number of them about—Rhythim Is Rhythim’s “Strings of Life” and Mr. single
  18. 18 fingers inc.can you feel itFingers’ “Can You Feel It,” for example—but the supply was still limited at this early stage. single

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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