Techno Rebels, The Renegades of Electronic Funk
Techno Rebels, The Renegades of Electronic Funk, by Dan Sicko is an updated, expanded history of techno music with special attention to its roots in Detroit.
Techno DJs and music producers referenced in the Techno Rebels book include Mike Banks, Blake Baxter, Carl Craig, Kenny Dixon, Jr., Richard Hawtin, Robert Hood, Jeff Mills, Theo Parrish and more.
Techno music record labels featured in the book include Definitive, Ghostly International, M-Plant, Minus, Planet E, Plus 8, Underground Resistance, Utensil Records and many more.
Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk, originally released in 1999 (re-released in 2010 by Wayne State Press), made clear that techno music had been created largely by and for Black Detroiters, a fact sometimes lost in discussions of global electronic dance music. This page highlights as well as expands on the DJs, producers, and record labels, that Sicko documented during his career.
DetroitSound.org
When it was originally published in 1999, Techno Rebels became the definitive text on a hard-to-define but vital genre of music. Author Dan Sicko demystified techno’s characteristics, influences, and origins and argued that although techno enjoyed its most widespread popularity in Europe, its birthplace and most important incubator was Detroit. In this revised and updated edition, Sicko expands on Detroit’s role in the birth of techno and takes readers on an insider’s tour of techno’s past, present, and future in an enjoyable account filled with firsthand anecdotes, interviews, and artist profiles.
Techno Rebels begins by examining the underground 1980s party scene in Detroit, where DJs and producers like the Electrifying Mojo, Ken Collier, The Wizard, and Richard Davis were experimenting with music that was a world apart from anything happening in New York or Los Angeles. He details the early days of the “Belleville Three”—Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson—who created the Detroit techno sound and became famous abroad as the sound spread to the UK and Europe. In this revised edition, Sicko delves deeper into the Detroit story, detailing the evolution of the artists and scene into the mid-1990s, and looks to nearby Ann Arbor to consider topics like the Electrifying Mojo’s beginnings, the role of radio station WCBN, and the emergence of record label Ghostly International. Sicko concludes by investigating how Detroit techno functions today after the contrived electronica boom of the late 1990s, through the original artists, new sounds, and Detroit’s annual electronic music festival.
Ultimately, Sicko argues that techno is rooted in the “collective dreaming” of the city of Detroit—as if its originators wanted to preserve what was great about the city—its machines and its deep soul roots. Techno Rebels gives a thorough picture of the music itself and the trailblazing musicians behind it and is a must-read for all fans of techno, popular music, and contemporary culture.
Wayne State University Press
The first authoritative American chronicle of the most innovative trend in contemporary music, this appraisal is a must for all followers of what’s hottest in music today.
GoodReads
