The Bigger Picture

[MARKEG]

It's funny you know. When Chrissi and I think, live eat and breathe techno all week, it's easy to get wrapped up in the genre and think that it's the be-all and end-all of everything.

I don't know if any of you know but I also play hardstyle and more ravier stuff when i dj too and this weekend I was playing out and thought to myself 'I wonder how many people actually do that also'. I think it's important to do different styles and check different stuff in your life and to have more than just one focus in your music.

At the same time, someone once told me 'you have to focus'. and this, i agree with too.

But to me, there's so much out there that it seems you are just limiting yourself by listening to nothing but one genre.

Anyway the point of this thread is do you guys think the 'bigger picture' is important? And do you go out of your way and make a point of making sure that you step out of the one thing and explore other style and genres?

If you actually think about it, techno is an incredibly small fraction of the music that is out there. In fact, if you put all other musics together, it's a pin prick on the map.

And who out there has the power at the moment to actually take techno TO the bigger picture?

Anyway enough of the questions heh. Let's hear what you guys think ;)

[Heroes]

I don't know if any of you know but I also play hardstyle and more ravier stuff when i dj too;)

with a hair cut like that you would be silly not to :eyes: i hope you take your fluffy pink leg warmers with you also

[snooch]

I've got gigs for both techno and ragga. I firmly believe that musical diversity is integral to progression. I'm considering trying for one playing oi and ska at a mod night. Even staying within techo, staying with one sub-style tends to lead to stagnation.

[RDR]

I listen ot all sorts of different genres... i actually dont really listen to techno that often. classical music is my fav at the moment and the cure 'boys dont cry' I like things with dicordant harmonies in it and a harsh edge.. or quirky with warm sounds. For me its about feel and style rather than genre. People i think like a certain 'edge' to music and down through the ages and the genres there are pieces of music from all these different genres that fulfill this need.

Genre just refers to name. the need to pigeon hole everything.

[rhythmtech]

i've been playing northern soul & ska/punk at scooter rallies for years now.. couldnt just live on techno, it'd drive me mad!

[tOM B]

I play reggae as well as techno - really nice contrast, completely different headspace.

And the reggae night has 200 - 250 people turn up weekly on a thursday night, whereas the techno night struggles to hit that monthly :eh:

[Francisco Scaramanga]

I probably play as many non techno gigs as techno. Playing out rock and roll of various different persuasions is my favourite non techno gig, but I also like to mix up funk/soul/reggae/hip hop/folk/blues/country/and more world sort of sounds. I love trying to put together a set of banging dance music, but using bits and pieces taken from all styles and genres except for electronic dance music, makes a nice challenge, and its always fun to break out the original versions of tunes that have been sampled for techno or house classics, such as Sergio Mendes or Richie Havens.

[holotropik]

If music is your life
it is always diversity
that will progress the sound.

[Si the Sigh]

I spin breakbeat and old 1990 - 1993 hardcore as well as acid and techno.

[Fusion]

i also play - acid techno - early 90's hardcore - industrial (mostly late 80's) - acid house

[TechMouse]

I'm doing a nice side-line in Dubstep.

[Tiptoe]

i play lots of electro house these days

[massplanck]

I'm doing a nice side-line in Dubstep.

Bangwagon Jumper.

[theledge]

I listen daily to techno & electro at home they're my main musical loves and they hold a special and untouchable place in my heart

But just to try and appreciate a small slice of the HUNDREDS of years of musical, technological and cognitive evolution which has led humankind to a place where we can create this amazing techno music surely broadens and deepens our understanding of where we are now and maybe where we're going (not to mention being a heck of a lot of fun while you do it!! :) )

Over the last year or two ive had a break from trying to write techno...and looked at things from some different angles. One of the things ive made a point of doing is getting my head properly around music history (going back a few hundred years) and music theory. Ive listened to loads of classical music and jazz (amonst others) and tried to get an idea of how our precursors two or three hundred years ago broke the rules and tried to move forward. Im yet to understand how to incorporate everything i've learnt into my electrotechno but I definitely feel wiser...and broaderminded...having that knowledge. Its good to keep things in perspective and know where techno fits in to the wider world

Phew that was quite an essay

[nick_anarchy]

well i was a hardcore techno / speedcore / gabba dj tho my heart lied with techno and im stuck with techno now ,tho i still play a bit of the hardcore techno etc aswell as hip hop and just mess around doin tricks etc ..i think its pointless to be stuck within one style u need a change now and again and if u grew up with different style its hard to move away from them

[TechMouse]

I'm doing a nice side-line in Dubstep.

Bangwagon Jumper.

Actually, I was into tearout breaks & electro before I was into techno.

[massplanck]

i see.. so you have jumped at least two bangwagons in your djing career. & now you play trendy dubstep .

so now you are not allowed to give out about people who have jumped ship to minimal if i am correct!

[davethedrummer]

electro house and minimal are doing it for me on the techno side of things
otherwise i just got back into echo and the bunnymen and the cure
been listenning to breaks and dub too
bits of the police ...all sorts really.

[Jay Pace]

Jonny Cash & The Kinks doing it for me at the mo'

[theledge]

Yeah the Kinks rock :)

[kai_1]

I've been playing Techno and Breaks side by side for the last 4-5 years, depending on the party/club/bar etc... been getting into a slower warped minimal/electro style which has started to over take the breaks a bit as my backroom/bar style this year but I think it's definitly narrow minded to only listen to one genre of music, or only to even play one style.
If you're playing nose bleed hard sets then there really is only one small niche of clubbers who are going to be into that... I've played at squat parties out of London when the really hard loopy stuff just hasn't gone down to well at all, and its taken something much funkier to fill the floor up... I've also recently bought the Chilli Peppers and Liily allens abums which are both shit hot! :eyes:

[eyeswithoutaface]

there is that much quality music out there, in all fields, electronic, acoustic, ska, punk, rock, blues, jazz, ethnic, world music etc etc that anyone who listens to one style and one style only really is depraving themselves

[Jay Pace]

Is that why I'm feeling depraved?

Mwaaah ha ha haaaa!

(sorry, I'll get my coat)

[conflict]

i'm starting to play scouse house, i MC to my own sets aswell

[eyeswithoutaface]

jay ur depravation is something else entirely ;)

[tots]

I play old skool house and the purist of pure techno as these have been my biggest and main influences since i heard my first rave tape in the early 90's,go with whats in your heart and you wont go far wrong........

[Antinoise]

I've really been into breaks over the last year or 2. It's influencing my current production quite a bit.

[The Overfiend]

I've really had a thing for rock, metal and guitar solos lately.

[holotropik]

another thought...fwiw,

i dont dj
never have (other than drunken spins at after parties etc).

so from the point of view of just writing the music
i find that it cycles and changes enough so that as
i follow the trail of bread-crumbs the music takes me
to many different places in due course.

when i first met techno it was hard as nails
this was good as i was playin guitar and loved
hard metal sounds.

then breaks influenced me to listen to my old
hip-hop (80s) tapes and videos
which i incorporated into a jackin sorta techno.

now i am listening to old jazz (1930-40) and funk
and exploring finer technicalities of the sound
trying to experiment with mixing newer elements.

i am wading through 40 x old 4 track 7" tapes
filled with Jazz from 1930-40s. A lot of it is drummers
like Louis Bellson & Gene Krupa...
...go figure??

[dubs]

I think when some people find a new style of music they can tend to go head first and mad into it for a while. I've certainly done that a few times. I think if people are really passionate about music as opposed to an image that may be attached to that sound or scene then you'll find aspects of all music interesting and enjoyable.

Having a diverse interest in music informs your broad understanding and develops deeper understanding of it.

for the record: when i'm at a karaoke box

it's always The Clash :shock:

[iffi]

I only play at our partys-mainly Techno with a few breaks thrown in to dislodge the 4/4. And i have been known to play some ****ed up dub (when i had 2 record bags)
But away from partys i listen to most styles of music from the last 80 years or so. From Alice in Chains to Frank Zappa by way of Spike Jones n Muslimgauze. It'd be easier for me to list the stuff i don't listen to.
Listening to just one type of music would be so boring...

[dirty_bass]

I simply don`t have the time to make all the music I want to.
I`m currently working on some minimal, some rock-ish stuff, techno techno, dubstep, post industrial suicide shit, ambient, house, and some soul/jazz techno fusion things.
I listen to vast amounts of music, and my place is always littered with random CD`s of vairous albums I am listening to.

Music is my drug, and I am a too far down the line addict.

[mattboyslim]

all forms of electro, even been dabbling with that new thom yorke album and some radiohead stuff
techno, mostly detroit, minimal or jackin chicago but again i touch on most areas
tech house, electro house (occasionally), deep, chicago
the odd bit of breakbeat
some dub
i work with some grime producers, and i've been dabbling with making grime and dubstep. mixed a bit of it at a community project today, and had some kids rapping over it, doing battles and that. really got into it, so i might start buying a bit more of it
old skool electro and early hip-hop
stuff by kraftwerk, giorgio moroder, up to newer synthpop stuff, and electro trash
i love it all really