EVERY GENRE PROJECT - August 1 - Hyper Techno
Genre of the Day - Hyper Techno
Album of the Day - To The Top by Channel X (1994)
The long trail of techno music is like a digital Pong ball flinging from country to country as the electrified sounds that once only filled the graffiti-laden walls of Detroit’s derelict warehouses became a worldwide phenomenon. That winding path inevitably led to some fantastical leaps, as if some alien, satellite-based force like the movies that helped inspire techno was projecting its futuristic sounds from nation to nation (though I suppose the radio could fit that definition.) Today’s finds Belgian techno, a recently familiar friend on this column, injected with extra dopamine and flown 5,800 miles over to Japan’s clubs in the early ‘90s where producers pioneered one of the country’s most enduring, ecstatic sounds of the last few decades.
Belgian techno had grown out of the country’s brash, industrial take on so-called ‘electronic body music.’ That mid-1980s cyborg-esque sound, inspired by the visceral, intense meeting of metal and flesh that encapsulates the act of producing and consuming electronic dance music was called new beat, which came up in July: but what happened after the new beat became the beat of yesterday? New beat gradually began to turn the dial and surrender to the faster BPMs of techno as it grew in popularity, though Belgian producers held on to much of the hard industrial grinding that defined their sound even if lightened by the shining synths and keys coming to define house’s breakthrough hits.
It became a defining Eurodance sound of the early ‘90s with global reverberations, but the ‘90s dance atmosphere was rife with a sense of constant experimentation. Just as the propulsive beats pushed a groove forward, they constantly turned over the sonic wheel. As genres like happy hardcore, gabber, drum’n’bass, and pop-oriented forms of house arose, Belgian techno declined as a central node in Europe’s electronic dance scenes. Luckily for its proponents, its potency unexpectedly carried on to soundtrack the neon flashes of Tokyo’s clubs. It’s difficult to predict what electronic sounds will resonate best with a particular region, but Japan seemed aptly primed for a techno craze: Yellow Magic Orchestra and other electronic-focused acts had already played around with forms of proto-techno over a decade prior.
Moreover, where there's recession, there’s European dance innovation. Just as Euro-styled electropop stormed the American charts in the late 2000s as clubbing became the sole antidote to giving into economic malaise, hyper techno lifted the spirits of young Japanese club goers at the outset of the country’s “Lost Decade” marked by negative economic growth. Recognizing the appetite for these records as techno began to take off, Belgian and Japanese producers alike recalibrated the sound of Belgian techno to fit more in line with elements of Japanese pop. They applied a glossy sheen with more synth ornamentation and lighter riffs driven by higher velocity BPMs. Alongside Italo-disco inspired Eurobeat tracks, it filled the floor of clubs like Juliana’s Tokyo, a club noted for its attendees’ bodycon dresses and techpara freestyle dances. Though rather short-lived like gothic rock’s Batcave, it was so iconic and synonymous with hyper techno that when clubgoers would talk about the music, they’d simply refer to it as “Juliana’s techno.” The club became covered on late-night TV shows as the bold fashions considered risqué at the time represented a watershed moment for Japanese women wanting to mark their independence and autonomy, suggesting techno’s mystical power to make people feel free. Hyper techno transcended the confines of the clubs, making its way into internationally beloved Japanese video games like Dance Dance Revolution.
Today features a rare artist return in this column that I might’ve missed without putting my nose to the grindstone research-wise. Channel X was a side project of Belgian producer Praga Khan, who also formed part of the New Beat outfit Lords of Acid who represented the genre’s key album on that article. To make hits in the same sonic arena for Belgium and continental Europe, the UK, and Japan in the span of a few years is a testament to the subtlety and tact too often underrated in the popular understanding of a DJ. Today, we’re graced by his Channel X 1994 project To The Top, evidently aimed to commercially do as the title says with its anime-inspired cover. The opening mix features driving electric guitar and the classic high-pitched staccato synth leads, further checking the box with breakneck switches into house-diva belts. Though more twinkling and tricky, the vestiges of new beat’s dark ambiences, frenzied whistles, and hard-hitting supersaw synths return anew on “Free Falling” and “Rave the Rhythm.” However, Channel X shrewdly dispenses with the raunchiness that also defined the genre, trading it for the sonic euphoria of the rousing, showy keys of “Touch My Soul” and “All Your Love,” which also features subtle breakbeats as hyper techno proves its capacity to engage with a variety of contemporary dance conversations. Once you learn that a single, now sealed-to-time club was at the center of whatever music you’re enjoying, a twinge of jealousy at missing out arises. Even so, the magic of streaming allows us to indulge in Japan’s early ‘90s dance, dance revolution that hyper techno ecstatically soundtracked.