techno dads

Classic lo fi bleeps and samples from Techno Dad Carl Craig at the top of his game.

The EP, 4 Jazz Funk Classics (a nod to Throbbing Gristle’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats?), was released on Craig’s own Planet E in 1991.

The other day I read an excellent recent interview with Craig by Joe Muggs on The Arts Desk. I was most interested to read that the producer was hugely influenced by his first extended DJ visit to the UK at the height of the rave explosion in 1990. Here he encountered many bizarre musical characters, including early hardcore pioneers like Shut Up and Dance who were using breakbeats and general messy plunderphonics to great effect. Carl also applied a touch of this ethic to Detroit techno. There’s a dirty sound to it, the opposite of most techno tunes at the time which were clean and precise – more like an old reggae sound. This kind of production sounds amazing on a big PA, incidentally.

The bit when the breakbeat kicks in, and then all the other elements return….well, it’s just one of those special moments. And techno, like movies, is all about those special moments.

More importantly for our purposes, it transpires that Mr Craig is a techno dad himself. He talks about trying to teach his kids how to do techno, in a bid to further the family business.

Open Mind aka Joey Beltram – The Trance

OK people, I’ve started a music blog. The title says it all really. A blog for old ravers with beer bellies. Though not neccessarily techno and not necessarily dads.

First up: a tune from Mr Joey Beltram, Brooklyn’s finest. I’ve dad danced to this man’s music on countless occasions. I’ve been unable to find out if Joey is a techno dad himself, though it seems likely, as he is about the right age.

This is a perhaps less well known number featuring a killer hi-hat pattern from the daddy of daft drum machines, the Casio RZ1. Notable for using the word ‘trance’ in the days before it became synonymous with shite, it was originally released on Easy Street Records in 1990, and later came out on a re-release 1996 compo called ‘Classics’ from that most paternal of Belgian labels, R&S.