#90's techno

[randomvarious]

1990s Techno Playlist

One of the things that really stinks about Spotify is its complete lack of good electronic music. Now, they have gobs and gobs of EDM bile and gunk, and you can still find plenty of good electronic tunes on there, but you’re really not getting anywhere near a full picture if that’s where you go to find your electronic music.

But there’s two labels that they do have a lot of material from: Paris’ F Communications and the Netherlands’ Djax-Up-Beats. So that’s how I’m starting the first iteration of this 1990s techno playlist—with dank songs from those two labels, except for the opener, which comes from Warp Records’ landmark Artificial Intelligence compilation.

This playlist is ordered as chronologically as possible and links are provided below to songs that have been posted about previously in order to give them more context:

Musicology - “Preminition” Deepside - “Prelusion” Ron Trent - “Altered States (Remixed By Carl Craig)” Deepside - “French” Scan X - “Yantra (Open Mix)” Robert Armani - “Ambulance (Remixed By Armando)” Robert Armani - “Invasion (Remixed By Spasms)” Purple Plejade - “Blanche” Juantrip’ - “Louis’ Cry” Laurent Garnier - “Astral Dreams (Headphones Mix)” Lady B - “The Groove Is Going” Glenn Underground - “The Unborn” Taho - “2019″ Mike Dearborn - “Razorsharp”

But there’s even more F Communications and Djax-Up-Beats stuff that’s on YouTube and not on Spotify! Plus, I added two back-to-back different versions of Underworld’s classic UK hit, “Born Slippy”: a remix by close Underworld associate, Darren Price, and a version that appeared in a Fatboy Slim mix in which he mixed out into probably my favorite downtempo track of all time, “At the River” by Groove Armada. Also a sweet aquatic tune by Dave Angel, too, called “Artech.”

Alaska - “Lost In Alaska (The Eurotrancery Mix)” Feedback - “Heaven” Renegade Legion - “The Weeping Waste” Laurent Garnier - “Planet Sex (S&R In Psycho Sex On Planet Earth Mix)” Feedback - “Rainfall (Edit)” Dave Angel - “Artech” Choice - “Acid Eiffel (Live At Wake Up Paris)” Underworld - “Born Slippy (Darren Price Mix)” Underworld - “Born Slippy” [Fatboy Slim re-work] Chaotik Ramses - “Crying 202 (Live At The M.A.D. - Lausanne)” Scan X - “Futuristic Funk (Live At The Liquid Room - Tokyo)” Laurent Garnier - “Dance 2 The Music (Live At The Rex Club - Paris)”

Playlist is also on YouTube Music.

Scan X’s “Yantra (Open Mix),” the least techno of techno songs on this playlist, deserves special mention, too, for the sole reason that it might actually be the first piece of trap music ever made? It’s from 1993! Does anything else come even close to that 🤔?

More to come, eventually.

[dankalbumart]

Very EP by Jeff Mills Axis 1996 Techno

[pleasant-canadians-music]

Stella - “Lower Saxony”

[no-lyrix]

Radial 3h Oldscool Set @ The Hanger Dublin  

Mostly 90's and early 2000's techno, enjoy!!!

[73chn0]

[Loop034] Thomas Chrome - Burn Vol. 1 [Techno 1997]

Label:Loop Records - Loop 034 Format:Vinyl, 12", 33 ⅓ RPM Country:Sweden Released:1997 Genre:Electronic Style:Techno

Tracklist "Burn Vol. 1"

A1 Burn Rubber Burn (Ash Car Mix) 6:26 A2 Brainsucking TV Screen 5:27 B1 Burning Chrome 8:26 B2 Phu Und Nasse 3:40 https://www.discogs.com/Thomas-Chrome-Burn-Vol-1/release/38238

(((https://technoscene.org))) (((https://reddit.com/r/oldtechno)))

[Loop034] Thomas Chrome - Burn Vol. 1 [Techno 1997]

[randomvarious]

Today’s mix:

House Party 013 - A Planet E Mix by Carl Craig 1999 Techno / Tech-House

You know you’re a real fuckin’ techno god when you can cobble together a mix that’s as versatile as this one and half the tracks on that mix are your own creations. Now, a lot of times this would be an annoying bit of self-promotion, but in the case of the legendary Carl Craig, it’s more than justified. Stellar mix from start to finish; not a single, solitary lull within this just-short-of-an-hour slate of dance tracks that range from satisfying, big dancefloor bliss to slow and heady burns.

Listen to the full mix here.

Highlights:

Paperclip People - “Floor” Designer Music - “Stevie Knows (Carl Craig Remix)” Alton Miller - “Exstasol” Common Factor - “North Nights” Recloose - “Soul Clap 2000″ Paperclip People - “Steam” Gemini - “Crossing Mars (Remix)” Common Factor - “Pisces Groove” Chaz Vincent - “Tom Cat” BFC - “Galaxy” Common Factor - “Will”

[randomvarious]

Holy Ghost - “4 Am At The Crying Cactus” Annex 3 Song released in 1998. Compilation released in 2000. Techno / Tribal Techno

From critic Jason Birchmeier:

The Holy Ghost was one of the more theatrical techno producers of the late '90s, recording two full-length albums for Tresor: The Mind Control of Candy Jones (1996) and The Art Lukm Suite (1997), both considerably conceptual. In addition to the albums, Tresor also released a few Holy Ghost 12"s, which became quite popular among the global techno audience. In addition to appearing on several CD mix-albums and compilations, the Holy Ghost toured as a live act. In fact, the act's live show often overshadowed its recordings. By the end of the '90s, the Holy Ghost's relationship with Tresor had come to a halt, along with its recording output.

And some of Holy Ghost's live material has been recorded and pressed to vinyl . In 1998, Tresor released Live In Amsterdam, a 12-inch that captured Holy Ghost's set at the Dance Valley Festival (billed as "The Woodstock of Dance") in Spaarnwoude, Netherlands from August of that year. That 12-inch features a song called "4 Am At The Crying Cactus," which then appeared on CD in 2000 on Tresor's Annex 3 compilation.

So, with this joint, I think I can say with utmost certainty that there's not another tune in this world that sandwiches its techno between drunken bits of sci-fi neo-noir storytelling. And if you were on some kind of happy drug with tens of thousands of people operating at a similar frequency as you, and then this super unique musical concoction came on, it might just cause you all to collectively lose your shit. Which is why Holy Ghost were so revered for their live performances.

Admittedly, this one takes some time to build itself up in order to really get to where it needs to go, but after a sharp transition to some pumping tribal percussion and then an infusion of some grainy transmission signal zapping, "4 Am At The Crying Cactus" really manages to hit its stride. And after the brief neo-noir break in the action towards the end, it then proceeds to reach a much higher level of nuttiness.

Good and strange late 90s techno tune.

[randomvarious]

Recept - “Detach” First Array 1998 Ambient Techno

It's not everyday that you hear the term "Texas techno," but allow me to hip you to some cool-ass shit right here. Back in 1998, a Texan man with a very Texan name, Merrick Brown, founded himself a teeny, tiny techno label in Austin called Tektite Recordings. Tektite only ended up averaging between two or three releases per year in its four or five years of existence, but despite that minuscule output, Brown's little label was actually able to put out some 12-inches by US-born techno stalwarts like Stewart Walker and Fred Giannelli.

And Brown himself didn't put out much of his own material on Tektite, but maybe he should have, judging by how good his contribution to a 1998 Tektite 12-inch called First Array was. Straying from straight-up techno and instead going the ambient techno route, Brown was able to deliver a song that's really nothing short of spectacular called "Detach," under his Recept moniker.

Now, hopefully you can overlook the less than stellar and kinda muffled sound quality of the video that I was able to find for this song. If you can't, well, that's your loss, because it still manages to rip despite that blemish.

Anyway, seems like there have been multiple occasions in which I've posted songs that have an unmistakable aquatic vibe to them and this is going to be another one of those occasions. Just, like, imagine a clear blue underwater seascape, where all species, both animal and plant, are operating together in harmony and all are playing their own unconscious role in helping the ecosystem that they reside in flourish. That's pretty much what this song sounds like to me; just a tune that's beautifully complex in all its percussive elements and that comes with this über-serene backdrop of synth pads. It starts off simple without any synths, but Merrick Brown, who may have been staring at the Gulf of Mexico while composing this juggernaut, just keeps on mixing more and more bits of both synths and percussion into his concoction, and eventually it grows into something that's just wonderfully satisfying.

Merrick Brown only released three solo 12-inches in his career. And based on this song alone, it sounds like he should've definitely released more 😢.