6 Minty ™ Magazine!

I imagined it all... secret underground cults of PacificNorthwest techno DJs, worshipping Detroit in darkwarehouses far from the grind of the househeads...and then I was snapped out of the dream.

This article is a creative trainwreck. Jeff Mills thrash-ing three decks of words at 150bpm... My originalmission was to find that link between Vancouver'srevered industrial scene of the '80s and today'sexplosion of techno, electro and experimental pro-ducers in the Pacific Northwest who openly proclaimtheir debt to Detroit's Afro-Futurist techno andGermany's minimal dub explorations. The missionwas personal. As a techno DJ of many years inVancouver, I wanted to discover who laid thegroundwork for the subsequent techno enterprises.Any trainspotter will notice cracks in the vinyl, andalso my own personal involvement with this scene.This article thus remains subjective and Gonzo. Dropthe needle... the following mix only sketches out thesonography. Memory tracks remain white labels inthe grooves of history...

Outside the HouseVancouver is primarily known for its house scenethrough the Nordic Trax label, and probably themost recognized DJ from Vancouver is Tyler "T-Bone" Stadius. Tyler moved to Vancouver in theearly '80s, DJing funk, acid house, soul, reggae anda "spot of techno." I asked him if there were linksbetween Vancouver's industrial scene — cEvin Key,Frontline Assembly, Skinny Puppy, Phil Western —and the early rave scene: "No, not at all," says Tyler."I'd really only heard of them. In the early days I'dplay a Ministry or Front 242 track but it was never myfirst love." Maybe not for Tyler — but for anyoneelse? People that have been forgotten, perhaps?The answer was grim: "No clue."

Re-mixing the strategy and not to be dismayed, Iturned to CiTR's DJ Noah. Tyler remembers him wellas a DJ who "played more techno than most." I usedto tune into Noah's Homebass show on Fridaynights — which is still running — and it influencedme for years. As Tyler says, "Noah played whatwould later become known as 'Rave Classics'." Butlike me, it was the style of Noah's DJing that wasmost impressive. "The quality I admire most aboutNoah's DJing," says Tyler, "is the fact that he can beunpredictable — an attitude or style sometimesassociated with 'Techno' DJing." Indeed. Anyonewho has heard Donald Glaude throwing down tech-no records can attest... it's not only the music, it'sthe attitude toward the records, an unmistakablegrasp of the mixer and the EQ in a vicious speedthat combines the hip hop tricks of turntablism withthe beatmatch skills of a house DJ, ending up some-where in uncharted turntable territory — a sonogra-phy of skills akin to Toronto's Jeff Milligan, a.k.a.Algorithm.

Which is where I had to jump — back East. With,unfortunately, no response from Noah at press time,I turned to one of Canada's most infamous technoDJs, Algorithm, who was influenced by Vancouver'sindustrial scene. He explains it like this:

"In Toronto, there were two types of people: theones who listened to ‘80s alternative music then lis-tened to 'alternatechno' (Underworld, Orb etc.), andthe ones who listened to ‘80s alternative music, andthen listened to house and techno. I was kind of inbetween both, but just like everyone else, I was lis-tening to New Order first."

Industrial IsolationThe path to fame in Vancouver is weird, but normalfor the recognition of a sound. The industrial scenehad the most influence outside its coastal home...but this boomerang returned, for Algorithm andother debtors to the industrial world, such as RichieHawtin, had a longstanding influence on the gener-ation of DJs that came after Tyler Stadius. But thiswas evidently still a few years to come and on thefringe of Vancouver's music history.

In the mid-‘90s, DJs such as Micronian and ChrisSchmidt in Vancouver mixed industrial, trance, andtechno. Artist Olo J. Milkman remembers the defi-nite isolation of the "Freak Scene" in the days of thegoth/industrial club Twilight Zone: "The music waselectronic but not what we know as techno now, itwas more like what became trance without thebuilds, and again there was no beat matching, sothe whole point of how the music is supposed to beassembled was lost on the freaks."

Around the same time, the splintering of the '80sindustrial scene filtered into the domain of electron-ic music, namely through the various admixtures ofthe "Skinny Puppy scene" in Vancouver: cEvin Key,Bill Leeb, Phil Western (Philth), Mark Spybey, DanHandrabur, Dave Ogilvie and a handful of othersthat brought the world Frontline Assembly,Download, DVOA, Noise Unit, Off and Gone,platEAU, Floatpoint, Vuemorph, OuterSanctum... Yet it wasn't until 1994 thatravers took serious notice. Nettwerkrecords — in one of the few momentsof glory before a long fall into com-mercialization — released a sideproject by Bill Leeb and RhysFulber. This was Delirium's firstalbum, Semantic Spaces.Despite an Enigma-take onworld beat, the album remainsa chill-out favorite from the era.And in 1996, Robert Shealaunched Map Music, going onto release Phil Western's cross-over album, The Escapist, in1998. Shea was HarthouseNorth America acid-technolabel rep and an early Vancouverrave DJ alongside DJ Noah, andprobably represents one of thestrongest links between the indus-trial and early techno scenes inVancouver.

Trackin' TechnoIt was in the same mid-‘90s era that Vancouver'stechno underground was forming. In Victoria, artistswho are recognized today on Spencer's itiswhatitislabel were DJing and collecting gear and settingforth their first productions — Matt Johnson, TygerDhula, Cobblestone Jazz and Colin the Mole.Vancouver witnessed the appearance of Loscil, BenNevile, Kerry Uchida and Steb Sly. A primary force atthis time was ex-house DJ Jess, whose BrokenRecord Chamber experimental side project and Qfunk band provided a creative drive for furtherexplorations beyond Vancouver's predominanthouse sound.

None of this would have been possible without adedicated and supportive framework of DJs andconceptual event curators that thrived in the mid-to-late '90s and into the millennium for this music. InSeattle, Dj Brahman's gr0k studios events, thelaunch of Randy Jones' ORAC records, the successof Jacob London, the madness of eriK's eventualPhoenix Festival and the influence of producers suchas Ben Sims, Solenoid, Mike Perkowitz, Masa's 1200

NO TES FROM THE UNDERGR OU ND NOTES FRO M TH E UNDERGROU ND

From Industrial to Techno:the Secret History of Pacific Northwest Techno by tobias c. van Veen

8 Minty ™ Magazine!

label, Joe "Mojo" Martin, Kris Markle and MattCorwine cemented a scene that is propelled todayby events thrown by Aron Schoppert et al. InVancouver, various techno collectives often operat-ed in collaboration with Seattle and Portland crews,including Beau Burke and Renegade Rhythms inPortland. Vancouver's <ST> collective worked withgr0k studios and supported the Notes from theUnderground events as well as a string of parties byJohn Hawkey that brought Kenny Glasgow,Algorithm and Adam Marshall. The energy wasmaintained by connections between Vancouver's B-Side, TeamLounge, HQ Communications and <ST>with a West coast network of musikal tribes, from theJoyScouts in Oregon to Cloudfactory in SF. DaveBaphomet's Together 604 Network also activelystrove to bring together electronic genres in severalexperimental events, culminating in his successfulintroduction of Perlon records to Victoria at the now-defunct Neptune nightclub. Yet it was not until 1998with the launch of technoWest.org as an extensionof Toronto's techno.ca that SF's techno scene —Sutekh, Context Records, the infamous Static night— and Vancouver's were brought together throughan encounter with SF's DJ Forrest Green. Then,bam... Y2K... Next thing you know, Vancouver has itsown techno-heavy Boomtown records, Kris Paleschhooks up with UK electro-minimal househeadsSwayzak, Vernon and Tyler Stadius launch their tech-house night at the Lotus, a slew of tech-house labelssprung out of Vancouver, and Konrad Black turnsfrom jungle and the defunct HQ Communicationscollective to put out a wildly successful single underthe moniker of "Headgear."

From here, the rest is history. At the end of the '90s,CiTR's Brady Cranfield — who had been creatingexperimental music as "LoveSucks" and Industry &Agriculture with Joseph Monteyne — launched theOpen Circuits music festival. This opened channels

with the Vancouver New Music Society by hostingOval at The Western Front artist gallery. In 2001, theRefrains conference collaborated with Open Circuitswith a performance by Kim Cascone, leading to aseries of events at the Video-In featuring some ofthe best of Canada and the West Coast's technoscene: Tomas Jirku, Safety Scissors, Sutekh, Jetoneand with the New Forms Festival, Mitchell Akiyama,Joshua Kit Clayton and Sue Costabile. Moreover,many of Vancouver's local artists have gone on tofame and fortune. Ben Nevile played Mutek 2002 inMontreal, and Loscil toured with Stars of the Lidthrough Europe. And did you know Tim Hecker,a.k.a. Jetone, is from Vancouver? Seattle continuesto sprout labels and artists... and the region is fertile.

Which brings us practically to today, andto the end of these words that have skipped records, forgotten names and barely evencracked the dusty crate of the Pacific Northwest's notable and vibrant techno his-tory.

NO TES FROM THE UNDERGR OU ND DI SPENSER

I have a serious problem. No. Worse. An addiction. It’sjust that … I can’t stop buying records! Lots and lots ofrecords! No matter how poor I may find myself, no matterhow hungry I get, some uncontrollable force whisks meaway from my broke-as-hell reality and demands that Ispend my last few dollars on those precious 12" vinylplatters. Fortunately for myself and other vinyl junkies,there’s a new supplier of DJ-friendly record goodies inSeattle.

At the corner of Denny and Olive on Capitol Hill, nestledcomfortably below Supercuts and directly across from thenow-defunct Beats International, DownLow Music may beeasily overlooked by the casual observer. A lighted ban-ner on the brick building’s façade announces the storebelow. Descend the entrance’s ramp and find yourself ina clean, sparsely decorated and – for now – unclutteredvinyl sanctuary. At times a bit cold by way of a concrete-enveloped basement, DownLow’s record mavens are any-thing but.

Open since January, DownLow is the brainchild of localDJ/Producers Jon Lee (www.tiltedrecords.com) and DJRyno (www.djryno.com). Along with Wesley Holmes,they’ve created an unpretentious, friendly environmentthat welcomes aficionados and novices alike.

At first, the size of DownLow’s catalog may not seem thatimpressive. House music, in its many variations from deepto progressive, is the store’s prime focus. Yet, other cate-gories include techno, breakbeat, hip hop, downtempoand a minute section of drum ‘n’ bass. Upon listening toa few records, though, it becomes obvious that the expe-rience Jon, Ryno and Wesley bring to the store bears itsfruits with one of the finest record selections around.Indeed, each visit I’ve made has resulted in a drastic emp-tying of the wallet.

"It opened because there was a musical gap in the cityonce Beats International closed," Ryno states. "I comefrom the Bay Area, where there are a ton of quality danceshops. That was the main focus, to try to bring a little ofthat energy here for the people to absorb. The goal is toprovide all with a selection of quality tracks along withsome knowledgeable service."

Ryno concedes that business has been "slow" so far.Nonetheless, he believes that "with more support fromthe people like the DJs, dancers, ladies, clubbers and thekids, [DownLow] should be alright."

Find enough people with addictions as bad as my own (Ihide my record purchases from my girlfriend now!) and —yes! — DownLow Music should be doing just fine.

PS: You guys still have that stack of records on hold forme?

- Jeromy Nail

DownLow Music422 East Denny Way206.322.3333