I recently read Rave On by Matthew Collin - an excellent tour of global and historical dance music styles and I thought it'd be interesting to gather up the tracks mentioned into YouTube playlists to give a flavour of the music under discussion.
(There's no point just reading about music if you don't then listen to examples!).
Typical synths and drum machines (as if you didn't know!): Roland TB-303, TR-808, TR-909
(buy the mugs here: https://www.synthevolution.net/shop/any-synth-rz?category=Mugs)
So, here's the overarching playlist:
And here are the individual tracks and links, with the relevant introductory quotes:
Chapter 1: Detroit
Chapter one covers the birth of arguably the most influential and mature dance music styles - techno. With it's roots in Detroit of the early 80's, it's sound is raw and it expresses the feelings of the people of city in tragic decline (at that time).
"When you hear tracks like UR's, 'Riot', that's Detroit screaming from the pressures of a racist society surrounding the city and bleeding it to death from the inside out" - Robert Hood. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx4mjEfCe58
"Because of the elegiac chord sequeneces and wistful melodies of some early Detroit techno, it has sometimes been interpreted as pure head music, but many of the original tracks were actually hard-pumping machine funk purpose-built for the dance floor, which is why tunes like May's 'Nude Photo' and Saunderson's 'The Sound' became anthems at British clubs like the Hacienda." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIx32rZdENM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiQFME5bym8
"(Derek) May sold a Roland drum machine to (Frankie) Knuckles, which he used to make the emotive anthem 'Your Love' with Jamie Principle'." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPrGnh7QUDo
"We played [May's classic track] 'Strings of Life' to one A&R guy and he was just on the phone. He didn't even look at me. So we just left.'" - May https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjdmPALLna0
Underground Resistance, ‘Has Good Left This City?’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0Eao-8ikqo
Was (Not Was), ‘Wheel Me Out’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScviwFh6T3M
"When Kraftwerk headlined Movement in 2016, it felt like a kind of homecoming. 'When they dropped the beat on Trans-Europe Express, I shivered’" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMVokT5e0zs
Notes:
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The Belleville Three / Detroit Trio: Derek May, Frankie Knuckles, Juan Atkins
First wave: Atkins, May, Saunderson, Eddie Fowlkes, Blake Baxter, Anthony Shakir
Second wave: Stacey Pullen, Carl Craig, Mike Banks, Jeff Mills, Robert Hood, Octave One
Canada: Richie Hawtin, John Acquaviva, Kenny Larkin
European influenced artists: 808 State, A Guy Called Gerald, Baby Ford, LF
Notable labels: Transmat, Metroplex, KMS, UR, Submerge, Planet E