Occasional provider of half decent Techno for a fucked up world...

For me it all started in 1991 when I was 13 after buying a cassette of Everybody’s in the Place by the Prodigy.

The A-side is a quality track, but it was the B-side, G-Force (Energy Flow), that had me absolutely hooked.
I'd never heard anything like it before and was totally fascinated by that tune. I used to play it over and over again.

The Prodigy was the start of it, but in particular there was a tape that my mates brother put together for me that really got me hooked.

It was chock full of what are now classics, but back then to me they were just amazing tracks that blew my head off.

Sadly it has been lost to the sands of time, and there is still one track that I loved that I’ve still yet to identify, but these are some of the highlights :

N-Joi – Malfunction
The Hypnotist - House is Mine
Joey Beltram – Mentasm
CJ Bolland – Horsepower
Spectrum - Brazil
Problem House – Dayner Overload
SL2 – Way In My Brain

Too young to go raving, or even aware of what it was, I was content with just sitting at home listening to all this crazy music.
I tried to find more of it down the local Woolworths and I also bought some stuff off my mates older brother too.
And well, I don’t know what happened, but after moving a while later, and whilst growing up, I kind of forgot about the music...

It wasn’t until hearing some Ultra Sonic on a trip to Scotland that my interest was rekindled.
Hardly the bastions of underground cool, but it kick started my thirst for electronic music again, so I guess I can’t complain too much.
So after getting back home to Newcastle I went out and bought myself that Ultra Sonic album.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
But it instantly took me back to caning that random tape full of classics.

Fortunately a purchase of Mixmag paved my way to Techno redemption.
There was a tiny article in the back about some bloke from Birmingham called Tony.
Apparently he made really nasty dirty music, and the descriptions of his music reminded me of when I was 13, listening to Old Skool.
So I bought Communications and my love of Techno was born.

I started buying as much Minimal Techno as I could, and used to lie on my bed with my eyes closed, listening intently and trying to work it all out.
I used to count the beats in my head and tried to identify the patterns and structures of the tracks.
It was hard music, but there was an intelligence behind it all that I thought was amazing.

I also started picking up albums like Larry Heard’s Alien and LFO’s Advance.
And to this day that first year of getting into Techno in '96 really cemented the two distinct poles that still hold my interest today.
Really hard abrasive Techno, and very soulful Electronica and Detroit Techno.

My mates used to take the piss all the time about me listening to random shit none of them had heard of.
But after finding the Mecca of all things dark and dirty in Newcastle, namely a tiny club night called Viva at the Riverside, it all clicked.
Cue two years of dancing all night, every Friday night, and finally finding a decent club night in Newcastle.
Some of the best years of my life.
And I even converted all of my mates to the church of Techno along the way.

But all this fun had a price, mainly screwing up my computing course at Uni by doing really clever things like not going to lectures or studying. So I packed it in.
And after experiencing a 'moment of clarity' after a particularly heavy night, I decicded to realise my dream of becoming a Techno producer.

So I went to college and taught myself production, bought my own equipment and bashed out my very first track, The Encroachment.
It only took me 3 days to make that tune.

Unfortunately I ended up labouring for months and months on everything else I ever made.
To say I wasn’t prolific is an understatement of gargantuan proportions.

I still love all things Techno, as well as DnB, Breaks, Electro a bit of Progressive and even some of that Minimal stuff.
But now I’ve sold all my equipment, and I’m quite happy buying loads of tunes, listening to stuff from all over the magical interweb and doing the odd mix in Ableton.

Cheers for reading.
I hope you like my mixes, Craig.