Techno originated in America in the 1980’s; its roots can be traced back to all sorts of different genres in America but hay, this blog isn’t really focused on old school America its more focused on Modern day Europe!

As wikipedia rightly points out Techno is a specific genre of music, many people who don’t really know what they are talking about will call all types of dance music ‘Techno’. Techno is electronic dance music, it would very rarely have vocals in it and it is not created using instruments. Techno is more a collection of electronic sounds that are compiled with loops and baselines to create tracks.

The early adopters of the Techno sound were orbital, Underworld, Carl Cox and Jeff Mills, these guys are still playing music and still have a massive following and fan base. They have between them been part of the industry since the 90’s when Techno made it across the pond and onto main land Europe and they have also been responsible for the UK crowd falling in love with Techno.

The latest progression in Techno is to perform ‘Live!’ sets. ‘Live!’ sets are when the Dj turns up with nothing more than what i would describe as an effects console. The music they play is all created on the fly, there are no pre made tracks that are played the dj doesn’t simply mix records. Dj’s that do this include Riccardo Ferri who i have had the pleasure of seeing. These hi energy sets are created by playing sounds, samples and loops all on the fly.

The UK, and especially Germany love Techno! one of the most popular Techno clubs is a German club named Cocoon. The leading Dj’s in the industry at the moment are people like Sven Vath and Richy Hawtin.

Other notable Dj’s some old and some new that are making waves for the genra include Adam Beyer, Darren Emerson, Dave Clarke, Chris Liebing and Umek.