Technologique

November 20, 2018 at Concrete, a boat club in the 13th district of Paris, French DJ and producer Antigone was blasting techno to the ears of hundreds of French ravers during an all-night set from midnight to 10 a.m. It was one of the best Detroit-inspired sets mixed this year, captivating the crowd with dreamy ambient synths and punchy analog percussion.

Although it is an underground genre in essence, there is a reason why a lot of people listen to techno in Paris. Techno’s origins can be traced back to the early 1980s when some DJs from Detroit got their hands on Japanese drum machines and synthesizers, notably from Roland and Korg. They fiddled around on them, dialing in some repetitive patterns some say were inspired by the sounds of the Motor City’s automotive factories. Around that time, there was a radio show called The Electrifying Mojo through which artists such as Jeff Mills and Derrick May became known. They began throwing raves and eventually became known internationally.

Following their success, an artist named Kenny Dixon Jr., known as Moodymann, got an email from a German group called Kraftwerk saying that they wanted to book him. Having heard their music before, he thought it was a joke. An influential group, Kraftwerk’s music had been soundtracking illegal raves in East Berlin squats after the Berlin Wall’s collapse in 1989, blending distorted and snappy analog percussions with intense, repetitive bass lines. Soon enough, Detroiters and Germans alike started playing in later-legalized Berlin clubs such as Tresor. The scene comprised many LGBT community members and represented the unification of East and West.

At the same time in France, the younger generation was listening to a lot of American music, from punk to rock and disco. Artists like Daft Punk and Laurent Garnier used these influences to shape and create the base of the French sound. As Garnier said in his Red Bull Music Academy 2015 interview, “America represented black music for me. [It] was the thing that was making me move.” Disco was still the big thing at the time, but after 1993, the Rex Club and Gibus changed direction and began focusing on electronic dance music, a milestone in France’s music scene. Illegal raves began happening in the outskirts of Paris in places like hangars, the Collège Arménien or the Fort de Champigny—a scene that became known as the Rave Age. While France developed a few major record labels at the time, these raves were often booking DJs and live acts from the UK. Collaborations like these led to Daft Punk releasing their debut album Homework on Virgin Records, a British label.

A few years later, many more artists like Miss Kittin, with more of a minimal techy style, Emmanuel Top, with aggressive Berlin-inspired patterns, and Mister Oizo, a movie director who makes his own caricatured resonant electro, began releasing their music and many more record labels emerged. Radio stations like Radio FG and Radio Nova also played a big role in promoting the genre. They would host any DJ who was booked at the time and garnered a large following from people already in the scene.

Throughout the early 2000s, more techno clubs either opened or began to book more electronic music, such as La Machine du Moulin Rouge, Glazart and La Java. They are still the pillars of the scene today. However, clubbers are much luckier now, because there is diversity in the choice of artists and the lineups are more coherent due to a decrease in booking costs. Places like Concrete or La Machine are booking festival headliners every weekend. According to the Resident Advisor website, there are roughly 30 techno DJs being booked every weekend in Paris and its outskirts.

Latency, Construct Re-form,Deeply Rooted and Concrete Music are labels revisiting the original Detroit techno with an original twist. They bring quality music to the table and are reaching out to prominent producers who are increasingly willing to sign with them. The biggest French DJs from the past several years even get to play at least once a year in Berghain, the most prominent underground Techno club in Berlin. Their music ranges from aggressive house to minimal techno that draws you in like no other.

Nowadays, the electronic music market is much more dynamic. Even artists with a few thousand views on YouTube can be booked in certain underground venues, depending on the subgenre they are in. Venues like La Station – Gare des Mines, Garage and Nuits Fauves are creating more diversity in the French capital.

However, some believe the atmosphere in these clubs is turning sour, with people being loud and disrespectful, or simply childish. The atmosphere required for clubbers to have a good time is being disrupted, since most bouncers end up letting anyone in. Another issue is that the city of Paris does not allow clubs to play their music louder than 102 decibels, which is relatively low when compared to other big cities.

The techno scene in Parisis not as free and humble as before, when it truly was an underground genre. However, there are new waves of techno flourishing and a never-ending list of events. Every DJ has an even more singular signature sound, which brings an endless list of new DJs to check out for techno aficionados and occasional frequenters of the scene alike.

BY SHADI AYOUBI

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SOPHIA FOERSTER