Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere. I got the link from the Elevator Sound newsletter. This is a nice look at a community-building and history-preserving effort in Detroit, with some interview excerpts from techno pioneers. (12:32 in length)
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Saw it a few days ago, but found it a bit disappointing as a decades long fan of the genre. It didn’t really properly cover the roots of techno, and overall seemed a bit insular and navel gazing.
It’s certainly very focussed and nowhere close to comprehensive. I suspect it stemmed from donations by Roland to the school/museum. Viewed as being primarily about that institution, I felt it was pleasant to watch and left a positive impression.
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Yeah I mean the school and museum are certainly much deserved and awesome, but the tone of some of the comments seemed a bit tone deaf, like the comment about Europe stealing Techno, wrong on so many levels.
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I also thought that wasn’t quite accurate, but I’m willing to cut the source a bit of slack.
Why?
I think what Submerge stands for is adaptiveness. We felt the need, did it well. Everybody copy what we did now it’s tougher. Just like with the records. You put the Techno records out, two years later you competing against yourself. Instead of complaining oh yeah them guys in Europe they stole my music, well motherfucker make up some new shit. If they in 1992 leave them in 1992.
Don’t see much to object to here - I don’t think it’s really deniable that Detroit music was the key inspiration behind the early European techno scenes, any more than you can deny that blues is the ultimate ancestor for rock music. He then goes on to Drexciya which is a great and obvious example, they innovated and you can hear the echoes in a lot of stuff coming out of Europe since then. This isn’t a bad thing and doesn’t necessarily mean that the version made in Europe is somehow always inauthentic or a rip off, just that the debt needs to be acknowledged.
On the other hand, I have regularly, regularly, heard people arguing that techno is “European” music and airbrushing out the role of Detroit artists, in the same way that has often happened in the past with music originated by by African American artists then taken global, i.e. most popular music people listen to today.
Nothing wrong with staking their claim and making sure their story gets told.
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Why do I cut him some slack? Because he’s maintained a consistent focus on community uplift and grassroots ethos. He probably harbours some resentment towards those who were less principled and more successful, but I don’t think he’s let that destroy him.
[Edit: looking at the quote which @benway helpfully transcribed, you can see that he’s not saying Europeans stole techno; he’s criticizing those who say that, telling them to move ahead instead of dwelling on the past.]
Plus while it’s not in this short, tightly edited piece that focuses on other things, Detroit artists including UR guys have hardly been reticent about acknowledging the influence of European artists as part of the conversation that led to the evolution of techno. EBM, industrial, Italo, New wave, often via Electrifying Mojo. “Kraftwerk and George Clinton stuck in an elevator”.
To me it looks like he’s criticising other Detroit artists who think they can rest on their laurels and keep churning out the same old same old “1992” but should still get some kind of special pass for this because they’re from Detroit.
With Drexciya as a prime example of pushing things forward. The basic tropes of techno were pretty well established in Detroit and Europe when they came along and pushed things forward. And of course that contributed to and inspired the ongoing global conversation on this music, you only need to put “Drexciya” in the search bar of this very website if proof is required.
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