Date: Mon, 19 Jun 1995 14:06:15 -0700
From: rhea@xinet.COM (Rhea Gossett)

There's nothing comparitively lyrical and evocative in techno, which is fine, because it "speaks" to a more basic, less structured, and perhaps more primitive part of the psyche. In some sense "techno" is all sound and fury signifying nothing.

This is so different from my own feelings about techno music - for me, techno is the most lyrical, most evocative music I have yet found.

It has inspired my passions and thoughts, and connected me with my emotions like no other music. In its beat, I feel rhythm, patterns, a cycle like life or the beat of our hearts. The "trancey," "acidy" sounds worm through my mind with the same intensity as my own obsessions - put to music, though, I can watch them squirm through my mind - thoughts turned to sounds, which I can dance with, instead of blindly follow.

The vocal samples, in their endless loops, hold for me such poignancy and longing - they are impossible, infinite, inhuman. Voices removed from meaning, or any hope of meaning save than which we, the listeners, bring to them - their digitized humanity is so plaintive, electronicly cut-off from context, made "mute" in the face of technology, that they become paradoxically human and inhuman at the same time.

I do not listen to music for an "answer" to "basic thematic questions such as 'how do you look at life?' 'do you believe in love?'"

I do not want to be fed these "answers," through the interpretations of someone else - we get these standardized formulaic answers so often, from everywhere, every day. Techno/trance/ambient music provides the soundtrack for my own internal "movie" - my own themes, refrains, cast of characters. The sound moves me through my own imaginings, and doesn't limit me to specific themes or moods like conventional songs/musical genres/ lyrics do.

Instead, techno music lets me create my own questions, and, my own *answers* - my mind is free to move, imagine, dream with the music to a place where my thoughts take me. When I feel FREE, then I dance - I am SELF conscious, not self-conscious, and I can move with joy and understanding inside my mind & body.

This process of listening, responding, interpreting, relating, moving, dancing, being - is not just a way to feel about techno music, but the best way, so far, for me to try to live that I have found...

Rhea

Date: Tue, 24 Jan 95 09:49:27 PST
Subject: Re: We need more serious criticism of techno! (long rant)

Personally, I think if the various genres of techno became any more mindless that they already are, we'd be in real trouble. I see nothing wrong with an artist's attempt at being socially concious (in fact - it's a trend i'd like to see more often in this genre.

I think techno transcends social consciousness. More than anything, techno is about the nature of sound, and how certain kinds of sounds can transport the listener to areas of consciousness not necessarily related to everyday "real" world experiences. Sure, vocal samples, ethnic sounds, recognizables rhythms, often provide a cultural reference point to the listening experience, but ultimately, I find that the sound processing, perfect beat (when there is one) and synthetic timbres usually chosen by techno artists serve more to emphasize a sense of "other worldliness".

A lot of techno music is about sound fundamentals, where the palette consists of wavelength, amplitute and frequency. In this sense it is self-referential, taking on a life of its own to transcend it's human creator. I often find myself relating such music to wave theory, Quantum Physics, and the basic characteristcs of space and time. Perhaps this is why it appeals to those who enjoy exploring altered states of consciousness, were a sense of connectedness to the basic elements of the universe is sometimes experienced.

Lee