Welcome To The Phuture: Techno [1988]

Cowboy — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:03:06 +0100

TECHNO – a new Detroit sound vibration – is rocking the House of the future. John McCready checks out the credentials of the Third Wave sound merchants.

"The Techno Rebels are, whether they recognise it or not, agents of the Third Wave. They will not vanish but multiply in the years ahead. For they are as much a part of the advance to a new stage of civilisation as our missions to Venus, our amazing computers, our biological discoveries, or our explorations of the oceanic depths." Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave.

Gimme Shelter [2007]

Cowboy — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:42:05 +0000

It's 6.30am on a beautiful Sunday morning in New York. Rather than making our way back from a night out, we’ve actually woken up to take a short ride to the City’s longest running house club, where we've been told by various heads both in London and while digging for those disco and boogie classics down in the East Village: "It's best to arrive around seven in the morning".

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No Sell Out [1990]

Cowboy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:54:40 +0000

Acid house is just over two years old. But did it ever exist and why are the people who started it all trying to do something different?

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Flaring Up: The Stone Roses at Spike Island [1990]

Cowboy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:01:03 +0000

The 1990s have begun, and with the new decade comes a new pop generation. No one garment symbolizes this sea change more than the flared jean, that most proscribed of past styles. Flared, not from the knee but from the waist, these jeans are more than a simple generational challenge worn by people young enough not to remember the horrors of the early 1970s: they denote the looseness that is the hallmark of the new mood.

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Machine Soul: A History of Techno [1993]

Cowboy — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:06:39 +0000

"Oooh oooh Techno city
Hope you enjoy your stay
Welcome to Techno city
You will never want to go away" – Cybotron, "Techno City" (1984)

"The 'soul' of the machines has always been a part of our music. Trance always belongs to repetition, and everybody is looking for trance in life... in sex, in the emotional, in pleasure, in anything... so, the machines produce an absolutely perfect trance." – Ralf Hütter, 1991, quoted in Kraftwerk: Man Machine and Music, Pascal Bussy

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Bermondsey Goes Baleric [1988]

Cowboy — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:06:49 +0000

When talking about the state of London’s clubland, the one thing everyone (except the promoters) is agreed on is the fact that the scene is too big and much too samey. The one real exception is the House Hippy scene of clubs like the Shoom and Future. This scene is, unique in its music policy, dress sense and attitude and blatantly sneers at the West End trendys.

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Acid – Can You Jack?

frank.talisman — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:21:23 +0100

The emergence of house music in Chicago is usually treated as if it was a single homogenous genre. In this great piece Tim Lawrence argues that while the early impetus came from reheated versions of disco, it was the acid experiments of a younger generation that really pushed dance music forward, inspired by the sheer accelerated craziness of Ron Hardy's Music Box. Can you jack?

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The Men In The Glass Booth [1976]

frank.talisman — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:03:44 +0100

He’s there each night from ten to closing time,

With sights and sounds to help the crowds unwind,

And from the booth each night he blows your mind

With his mix and tricks

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Mr Bongo

frank.talisman — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:39:30 +0000

From humble beginnings in the London basement of Daddy Kool’s reggae shop on Berwick Street, Mr Bongo is now seen as the standard bearer for Latin music outside the Americas. Mr Bongo founder David Buttle takes us through the twists and turns of the label's history.

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Flash is Fast, Flash is Cool [1981]

frank.talisman — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:26:07 +0000

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