> I remember that, for a while, the snare rolls, big > breakdowns, 303 lines and druggy chords that later came to > characterise trance had permeated deeply into more "pure" > techno. That "Access" track would get played at proper techno > nights and, for the first few months at least, no-one would > particularly bat an eyelid. > > Now these techniques were all very effective on the > dancefloor, and after a while audiences were demanding to > hear that sort of stuff all the time. Some techno DJs I know > pretty much capitulated, with snare rolls every five minutes, > but they still saw themselves as being "techno". "Because > this works better on the floor and is more popular with club > audiences", said some of these guys, "this is the stuff that > will stick around. That noodly stuff you play isn't really > techno at all!"
In my view, the main characteristic difference between trance and techno has always been: melody. In techno generally the only real melody (if you follow the pure definition of what a melody is) you are going to find is in the bassline (if even). For the rest the music is composed of layer on top of layer of different rhythms of sounds at one or two pitches. (ok, ok, basically a rhythm of two tones is already a melody, but you will understand what I'm getting at) In a lot of cases these layers create a melody of it's own, but that's not what I mean with a "real" melody. Trance (and to a lesser extend house!) doesn't have that. The music is much more traditional to the extend that there is mostly a clear melody in the mid range. That's also why techno was so different from other western music, when it originated. The only music where you find a similar way of composing, is ethnic music. Another big aspect of techno (and early Chicago house/acid) and as such very often different from trance, is that techno tries to evolve, tries to bring something new, tries to bring something that has never been heard before, tries to trigger strong emotions in people by surprising them. Now for a time, snare rolls, big breakdowns, 303 lines and such were new and triggered these strong emotions in people and were part of real techno. Trance is much more oriented towards pleasing the audience, trying to bring something that people already like to hear, trying to produce sounds that the majority of the people perceive as beautiful, dreamy soundscapes. Techno has evolved on and moved to several newer levels. Trance still uses the snare rolls, 'cause they work. Now of course it's all still music and not exact science, so there will be plenty of examples of techno with melodies and trance without, and "good" and revolutionary trance and "bad" boring techno. But generally speaking you can (I at least) see the broader distinctions. That's also why I don't want to stick to one genre and I really like certain trance records (although not recently ;-) )and dislike certain techno records. As the music evolved I evolved with it. I used to love the stuff from Misjah, later that of the Liberators, again later that of Adam Beyer, Gaetek, Marco Carola. But that's all in the past. When I listen to it at home, I still like the sound in a nostalgic kind of way. I would never play it out again though (or it should be some revival thing). Now, I'm more into deephouse, Detroit house and electro (as so many old F*cks like me), no idea if that will stay forever. > > What are these guys now? They're trance DJs. Basically there are two kinds of DJ's. The DJ that purely wants to please the audience and give them what they want to hear and what they like best. The DJ that has the clear need to be loved and the need to be popular. And the DJ who wants to bring the audience something new and surprising. Again, of course we are all a combination of these two profiles, but we are either on one side or the other. We all like to be on stage and get the cheers, but that is different from needing it. The first kind will not take any risks when playing and go with the flow of whichever is hot at the time. The second kind will explore the boundaries and set the new trends, but will never be as popular as the first kind. Trance DJ's tend to be more of the first kind, techno DJ's you'll find in both. Although there are enough trance dj's like Tiësto who genuinely love that music (whom I consider a good dj, although I totally gag on his taste in music) and who have not jumped on the bandwagon like Pete Tong and such who will just hop on the next one when it comes along . my 2 eurocents Joost
