It all began in 1970 with a German group called KRAFTWERK! Dozens of band members came and went over the course of four years experimenting with advanced electronic devices such as the Minimoog,an ARP Odyssey and EMS Synthi AKS as well as inventing their own machines. In 1974 they released the classic “Autobahn” album. This album contained a world first 22 minute title track which contained the “Motorik beat” that would famously become known as the “4/4 beat” (“Four To the Floor”). Kraftwerk pushed the boundaries to the next level and produced some classics such as Radio-Activity (1975), Trans-Europe Express (1977), The Man-Machine (1978), The Model (1978) Computer World (1981) and the single, Tour de France (1983). Unknown to them at the time, they were to become the biggest influence to all Dance Music genres and Dj’s.
Mid 70’s, ‘Funk’ and ‘R’n’B’ with a fastpaced “4/4 beat” made for partying and partying only, it was called ‘DISCO’ and was made around the globe but mostly in America and Italy. Party-people of the world loved the new sound and in 1977 New York’s infamous “STUDIO 54”, the worlds first ‘big club’ opened it’s doors! These Disco sounds lead onto the eighties and its emerging soul scene. Studio 54 closed its doors in 1986.
New York Invented “HIP-HOP” back in 1977 when a Clive “Kool Herc” Campbell a Dj in the Bronx was speaking poetry and sayings over backing music, turntables and p.a systems were set up in for example in basketball courts where breakdancing followed suit. Keith Wiggins aka Cowboy invented the word Hip-Hop in 1978. By 1979 The Sugarhill Gang released the first ever Hip-Hop record with “Rapper’s Delight. The breakbeat sounds became more refined by ‘Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’. They created MC’ing for the first time along with scratching. “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel,” was released in 1981 giving the first time for scratching actually recorded on a record. The group’s most significant hit was “The Message” (1982). New York saw Todd Terry in the late 80’s produce his unique style. Bringing together the Hip-Hop sound and merging it with sampled disco sounds, he was to be one of the pioneers of House music in New York.
‘HOUSE MUSIC’ is a style of electronic dance music initially popularised in mid-1980’s. House Music has its origins in the Disco music of Chicago and its name derives from the sound of the warehouse parties. “House” was re-named as a shortening of “Warehouse”. The early eighties saw disco and electronic music merge as one. Pianos, vocals, strings, and synths and bass lines created the sound. Kraftwerk’s “Motorik beat”, four-four kick drum simulated using the Roland TR-808 became House Music’s standard forever more!
1984 in Chicago a group of people formed and began to experiment with the sound of that four-four (four to the floor) kick drum and tweaking the sounds from the revolutionary ‘Roland TR-909’, ‘TR-707’, ‘TR-727’ and ‘TB-303’ (analogue units that would produce loads of interesting noises and drum patterns) House Music was created. Early House recordings were “On and On” by Jesse Saunders, Jamie Principle and Frankie Knuckles “Your Love” which is considered to be the first ever all electronic House song. Chip E.’s “The Jack Trax” featuring the songs “It’s House” and “Time to Jack”, which used complex rhythms, simple baseline, sampling technology, and very little vocals. This minimal vocal sound produced the early form of ‘ACID HOUSE’ invented by the likes of Phuture with the classic “Acid Trax” (The first ever Acid House track) and producer Marshall Jefferson. But Chicago stayed to it’s roots of creating classic House songs with more classic anthems such as Frankie Knuckles “The Whistle Song” and Marshall Jefferson “Move Your Body”, Mr. Fingers “Can You Feel It?” and The Jungle Brothers “I’ll House You”.
TECHNO’ is a style of electronic Dance Music populated toward the late 80’s. Techno takes its origins from the euro-synthesizer-based sound and with the Chicago House sound, merging the two with futuristic and fictional references this became ‘Detroit Techno’.
1981 in Detroit USA, saw school mates Derek May, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Eddie Fowlkes influenced by the sound of electronic music produced by Kraftwerk in Germany and Art Of Noise and Gary Newman in the United Kingdom. Armed with Rolands ‘TR’ synthesiser range of modules and the Roland TR 909 drum machine they began to play-out their new found style of electronic music in the likes of small meeting clubs and YMCA halls. In 1984 Juan Atkins produced under the alias Cybotron and released songs such as “Clear” and “Techno City”. Clear” is thought to be the first ever Detroit Techno song and Juan Atkins coined the word ‘Techno. At the same time Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson hooked up with the Chicago club culture enjoying the scene which inspired their music creations. In 1987 Derrick May under the alias Rhythim is Rhythim produced Techno’s first ever-classic anthem “Strings Of Life” named by Frankie Knuckles. Kevin Saunderson went on to produce Inner City with the classic “Good Life” some few years later. Some say, Chicago House music was created after Derrick May sold Frankie Knuckles a Roland TR 909-drum machine! Others say not! Techno didn’t have much impact in the States so creators had to wait until 1989 when it became big in Europe especially the U.K, Germany and Belgium. This produced the first talents such as Beltram-“Energy Flash” and Dj talents such as Paul van Dyke and Westbam. In 1989 Westbam co-founded and the first ever ‘Love Parade’, then an illegal party in Berlin! After the Berlin Wall came down in late 89′ the Techno scene was similar in Germany as that of the ‘RAVE’ scene in the U.K. Germany indeed went on to be the Techno ‘Capital Of The World’! Other highly successful artists that emerged from the Techno scene were LFO -“LFO” (1989), ‘Orbital -“Chime” (1990). Also inspiring Techno Dj’s were: C. J. Bolland (Sugar Is Sweeter), Carl Cox (the first ever Dj to perform mixing with 3 decks), Darren Emerson and Laurent Garnier.
HOUSE, TECHNO and HIP-HOP, pathed the way in the Dance Music scene for a decade bringing all these sounds upto 1988’s dance music explosion for ‘RAVING’ in the UK!!
But just before that explosion, the UK was getting a feel for the House scene with the import of Chicago’s classic tunes as mentioned above. In 1985 ‘T-Coy’ (Mike Pikering) produced the UK’s first House music track “Carino”. The UK then witnessed their first ever House top of the charts number 1 with “Jack Your Body” by Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley in 1987. This inspired British group MARRS to produce the classic “Pump up the Volume” which is considered to have been the first U.K. number one to contain samples from other songs. Other British classics released in the beginning were, Bomb The Bass – Beat Dis (1987) Theme from S’Express by S’ Express (1988), Coldcut featuring Yazz – Doctorin’ the House (1988), and “Pacific” – 808 State (1989). This was now leading to the cross over into the Acid House Rave generation explosion in the U.K.
‘Rave Alert’! Smiley faces, Glow sticks, Whistle posse, Non-stop beats and 24hour parties, sum up the iconic days of Acid House between 1987-1993 in the U.K! Acid House derived its name from Chicago in 1985 when an outfit called Phuture produced a track called “Acid Trax”. The USA Acid House alone and the U.K took it over. This was Acid House’s finest hour and a milestone in the history of the UK Dance scene along with the impact of the first seminal clubs – Shoom, Future, The Trip, Land of Oz and The Hacienda. This bringing a media and public frenzy not seen since Punk Rock.
The ‘Hacienda’ is Manchester’s (UK) icon, this famous nightclub opened in 1982 by ‘Factory Records’ (THE LATE TONY WILSON) and 80’s band legends New Order (BLUE Monday -1983!) and in its early years was a live music venue. Events started off being small, exceptions including Madonna’s first UK appearance!
In 1986 the club changed the live acts from bands to DJ’s, firstly with Mike Pikering. Then joining him in the mix was Jon DaSilva and Graeme Park. The venue became one of the first in the UK to play House Music to the U.K’s party people.
By 1988, riding the wave of Rave culture and the drug Ecstasy (or ‘E’), the club had become famous not only in Manchester (‘Madchester’ as used by the masses) but throughout the world! Though many a goodtimes were had, an increase in drug awareness by the media, the club shut down in 1991. But shortly re-opened with extra security, but due to increasing gang warfare over the next five years closed it’s doors for the last time in 1997.
It wasn’t just Manchester, the same spirit was found in the clubs of Glasgow, Liverpool, Cardiff, London and Bristol. Infact every club in the UK was trying to get in on the act by late 1987. Over on the Spanish Island of Ibiza, clubs like Pacha (which opened in 1973!) and Amnesia had saw Dj’s playing a mix of Techno and House. Danny Rampling and Paul Oakenfold brought over the sound to the UK clubs. Danny Rampling opened ‘Shoom’ just south of the River Thames that adopted the famous ‘Smiley Face’. Two weeks later Paul Oakenfold holds the first ‘Future’ in the backroom of the ‘Heaven’, a huge club on London’s Charing Cross owned by Richard Branson. In 1988 Oakenfold ran ‘Spectrum’ from the Haven club later to be re-named the famous ‘Land Of Oz Nights’ due to legal reasons! It was here that in 1989 Jimmy Cauty and Dr Alex Paterson founded ‘AMBIENT HOUSE’. Dj’s as the Orb back then they played music from Brian Eno, Pink Floyd to reggae to 70’s rock and added samples from anything from animals to planes and trains! Out of Paterson and Cauty’s sessions at ‘Trancentral’ studio, came The Orb’s “Tripping On Sunshine” and Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond’s KLF album “Chill Out” (1990), the first ever Ambient House album. Alex Paterson went on to create The Orb’s 22 minute “A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld”, which featured heavily sampling of Minnie Riperton’s “Lovin’ You”, and the 40 minute, “Blue Room”. Ambient House music was combining elements of acid house and Ambient music mainly for the post-raves ‘come down. This lead to the foundry of Trance by the KLF (Bill drummond and Jimmy Cauty), notice if you may that the classics “What Time Is Love?”, “3 a.m. Eternal” and “Last Train To Trancentral” all had “Pure Trance” mixes.
Back to 1987 and Pump Up The Volume’ by M/A/R/R/S was a UK produced record based on a House beat with samples and it was big on the dancefloor and it wasn’t long before club support propelled it into the charts, where it held Number 1 for three weeks! This led to the “Summer of Love” in 1988/9. A Guy Called Gerald’s “Voodoo Ray” (1989), became a huge club anthem, and a big UK chart hit. Other noticeable top 40 chart hits were D-Mob’s “We Call It Acid”, which kicked off the club chant of ‘Aciieeeed!’ and Jolly Roger’s “Acid Man”- which the BBC banned due to it’s views on drugs!
Raves moved from the inside club to bigger outdoor venues, fields /warehouses /aircraft hangers packed with LSD and Ecstasy pill popping Ravers all over the country! These illegal parties saw Dj’s turn up with their ‘Sound Systems’ playing to the revellers. The events were to become massive and competition was building up between the organisers to see who can put on the best show and to have the best acts playing! Tony Colston-Hayter created Sunrise; other large Raves were Genesis, World Dance (Anton Le Pirate), Energy, and Helterskelter.
These Raves included laser light shows and fun fairs for the partygoers. A typical Raver was dressed in baggy clothes with plenty of ‘Smiley’s’, Kickers trainers and glow sticks a must! The location of these events was a secret kept up until an hour or so before the start. Meeting points would be made via pirate radio stations. Common venues included the fields off the M25 orbital, ravers returning from their summer in Ibiza- straight off the plane, straight to a rave!
The police who at any opportunity would ‘Bust’ the Rave and close it down, along with arresting anyone who couldn’t escape closely monitored raves! To avoid this, organisers like Raindance held ‘Legal Raves’, but were not as hardcore as ‘Illegal Raves’! Come the early 90’s there was a mix of legal and illegal Raves across the U.K. Mostly illegal Raves were being busted and a trend to make money from legal Raves were becoming the norm by 1992. To note a few of the big legal Rave organisers were Dreamscape, Raindance, Fantazia, Eclipse and even Helerskelter turned to legal Raving! Though I say legal that’s not strictly true, as tickets were sold, the amount that entered was double sometimes triple that amount, and the drugs were still in circulation. So out in fields and warehouses around the country, the police still busted Raves, sometimes with luck and sometimes not. The UK government were trying every trick in their power possible to close down every Rave in the land.This began the wave of taking Rave indoors, the first ever indoor Rave club opened 1991, that being ‘Eclipse’ in Coventry, Dj’s like Sasha and Carl Cox playing the sets. Silly laws came into effect and organisers were being arrested and fined as soon as a Rave was opened these even included the legal Raves don’t forget! This continued heavily from 1991 to 1993 when enough was enough and the government was to pass the stupidest bill ever- more on that later! It seemed no one could hold a Rave, obtaining licenses were almost impossible until the emergence of ‘Universe’ who held very large Raves indeedeee! In 1993 with an attendance of 40,000 Ravers ‘Tribal Gathering’ was held. This was to be the last ever Rave as we knew it! All was going to plan/ish until it an act called the ‘PRODIGY’ were playing their set. Half way through the set the local council backed with the police shut the Rave down, this due to high and increasing sound levels!!!!
Which brings me onto the most stupid law of the UK- ‘The Criminal Justice bill. This law already in place passed a new act in parliament in 1994. With the new rave clause, defining a ‘Rave’ as 100 or more people dancing outdoors to music “mainly comprising of repetitive beats”. New powers for the police will include the right to detain anyone they believe is heading to an illegal rave and the right to confiscate sounds systems This law saw an instant effect on Raving in the UK and a back lash from some big Dance Music artists, like The Prodigy with the song “Their Law”, was written as a direct response to the bill. A quotation in the booklet of the Prodigy’s album “Music for the Jilted Generation” read “How can the government stop young people having a good time? Fight this bol***ks.” The song also contained the lyrics “f*ck them and their law”! Acid House music in the UK was now dead! Dreamscape and Helter skelter still managed to hold events at licensed venues with Happy Hardcore dance music, but to no-where near the scale of they’re past Acid lives!
But in the mist of down turns, clubs were being built to safely accommodate many hundred crowds of clubbers in one place and to respect the law as not to be shut down at any moment. Promoters saw the opportunity to make money from the different followers of House music genres, this leading to the birth of the Super Club, clubs to hold in some cases 3000 clubbers. There were Techno clubs, Trance/Ambient and even Acid/Rave clubs on offer to the public tastes. The first main contenders were Ministry of Sound (London), Cream (Liverpool), Pacha (Ibiza and London) and later Renaissance (Small Northern Town-Mansfield). These superclubs gave clubbers what they wanted: somewhere to dance all night to the 130 beats per minute onwards. But the clubs went further, turning themselves into slick, corporate, chain-brand names with their own logos, resident DJs, record labels and assorted paraphernalia. Clubbers could buy the music, the in-house drink, clothes, magazines, the lifestyle and with it a sense of group identity. What’s more, the brand could be recreated any time any place, which took these clubs international.
Meanwhile, back in Chicago, New York and Detroit, the scene had still not progressed beyond a small number of clubs, but had a different House Music sound growing in popularity and by the early to mid 90’s ‘Garage’ House was perfected. They had not followed the path of Acid House and its name was derived from the club ‘Paradise Garage’ where the likes of Adeva produced the classic “In and Out of My Life”. Gathering allot of their styles from Hip-Hop, raggae and latin this introduced a wave of New house genre, namely, Tribal house, Progressive House and Funky house. This new House Scene was inspiration for Dj’s and remixers like Junior Vasquez (remixed tracks for the likes as Britney Spears to the Spice Girls) and “Little” Louie Vega ( Masters At Work with Kenny “Dope” Gonzales). Todd Terry who had been on the scene in New York since the beginning having the classic “weekend” in 1988, later went on to produce the classics “Somthin Goin’ On” and “Keep on Jumpin”. Other New York big Dj’s and remixers sufacing were Erick Morillo (alas as Reel 2 Reel “I Like To Move It), Roger Sanchez (classic track/video “another chance”), and Danny Tenaglia.
In the UK a mix of culture made way for the sound of ‘Jungle’ or ‘Drum and Bass’ with SL2’s “On A Ragga Tip” and a more upbeat tempo Hiphop called ‘Breakbeat Hardcore’ had “The Bouncer” from Kicks Like a Mule produced. These new House genres were short lived because the combination of both sounds merged to become UK ‘Garage’. Pioneered by the likes of 187 lockdown-“Gunman” and by the mid to late 90’s acts such as The Artful Dodger (“Re-Rewind” featuring Craig David), Dj Luck And Mc Neat (“Little Bit Of Luck”) and Double-99 (“Rip Grove”) were ripping up hit after hit after the collapse of the Acid House scene. The Acid House lover hated unorthodox rhythms of Garage opposing the ‘Four-to-the-Floor beats’ of the Rave scene. So the Ibiza house scene grew even bigger since raver had to put on his raving shoes and board a plane! But so did the Garage lover as Ibiza came to host House and Techno, Ayia Napa on the Island of Cyprus became the Garage scene holiday destination.
Clubs and promoters went from strength to strength up to the early 00’s catering for every clubbers choice in Dance Music genre. Clubbers were spoilt for choice, House, Techno, Garage and Trance/ambient, but a noticeable factor was the less demand for Acid House between 95′-03′. Was the Acid sound lost forever?!
Over this period many new Dance Music genres were born notably in 1992 with ‘Progressive Dance’ in which offshoots were created from the three main dance parents- ‘Trance’, ‘House’ and ‘Breakbeat’. By the mid-late 90’s ‘Progressive House’ and ”Progressive Trance’ had emerged commercially as one of the dominant genres of Dance Music. These styles have made the basic formula of modern House music, as we know it!
See the list toward the end for more detail on different genres of dance music. There is allot!!
Artists like Tiësto, Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, Robert Miles, ATB and Paul Oakenfold came to the forefront as premier producers and remix artists. By early 2000’s, Progressive Trance remained commercially huge, but had split into extremely diverse genres. Some said Dance Music had gone back to where the music industry was in 1977, just before Punk broke out. Something new was to happen and some of the artists that had created the Trance sound in the early and mid 90’s had abandoned Trance completely in favour of more underground sounds.
As of 2003, Dj’s and promoters re-emerged, determined to kick-start a more underground scene and there were signs of a renaissance in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and other racially-mixed cities, as well as in the UK, Canada, Scandinavia, Italy and Germany. The key to House music was re-invention. In Western Europe in 2003 ‘Electro House’ was born and grew to become one of the most prominent genres of electronic dance music today. Stylistically, it combines the Four to the Floor beats with harmonically rich analogue baselines, abrasive high-pitched leads and the occasional piano or string riff. The tempo being 120 to 133 bpm. Dirty House is a derivative of Electro House, which is more commercial in its appeal and in general features more vocals. This was indeed the revival of the ‘Acid House with vocals’ in today’s modern format! From artists such as David Duriez and Steve Lawler in the first wave and upto present day ‘Bodyrox’s’ single “Yeah Yeah” was 2006 BBC Radio 1 and Ibiza tune of the year! Love Don’t Let Me Go” by David Guetta (Citroen’s t.v advert) was massive for ‘Electro House’ to name a few.
Also emerging in 2003 was ‘Tech House’, a blend of original House and Techno. Tech House uses the same basic structure as House. Elements from Techno’s shorter, harder and often distorted kicks, fast hi-hats, and more synthetic or Acid sounding synth melodies from the TB-303, including raw electronic noises from square wave oscillators. Artists associated with Tech- house are Mr C (From the Shamen), Jean F. Cochois aka The Timewriter (working with the likes of Mike Oldfield, and Faithless) , Dave Mothersole ( DJ ) and Ian Pooley (“Heke” and “Celtic Cross”) to name a few. This is to be today’s modern underground sound of Techno!
So here we are right up to the present day, Electronic Dance Music is part of of our lives. Amazingly though is the high number of remixes being produced of the older tunes either by new modern artists or re-made by the original artists. For example, in 2005 a remake of the first ever Techno anthem-‘Strings For Life’ by Soul Central was released. Clubs are increasingly going back to the days of warehouses in terms of styling, rather than the plush interior designed venues of the late 90’s. The music itself has seen a surge in popularity with youngsters who were not even born when rave first became popular. Genuine illegal raves have continued throughout the UK to this day, unlicensed parties using venues ranging from disused quarries, warehouses and condemned night clubs and even the use of a fields again!! The rise of the Internet has helped with much wider and more accessible communication with texts/ mobile phones resulting in interest and growing parties but at the same time creating police involvement. It’s not the same as the 88/89 Rave culture, but is certainly a scene that has its roots firmly embedded.
The end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 has seen the rising popularity of an offshoot of UK garage, called ‘Bassline’. Artists like Matt Farley, Delinqent’s “My Destiny”,T2’s “Heartbroken” and Wideboys’ “Snowflake”, reaching the mainstream charts have been contributing to the ‘new’ UK Garage sound after the fall of the ‘old’ UK Garage sound.
In the UK, Ministry of Sound, Cream, Pacha and Renaissance are still going strong with their empires and brands. They hold special gigs at events/clubs nation-wide and around the globe supported by the world’s best superstar Dj’s. Ministry Of Sound even has it’s own magazine and t.v station! The big guns have been joined by Gatecrasher over the years touring the UK and host a two day event each year called ‘Gatecrasher Summer Sound System. Cream host a weekend event famously called ‘Creamfields’ and has also had the event played out in Poland and central Europe in 2008! Global Gathering once the legend of Raves still keep close in touch with the old days. There’s a revamped ‘Dance Village’ at Glastonbury containing seven arenas; it caters for the hunger of Ravers better than ever now. The same said for the Reading festival. Ibiza is still the world’s largest Dance party destination holding the biggest of parties over the summer months of the year. Germany still holds the legendary outdoor event-‘Love Parade’. Barcelona plays host to outdoor festival ‘Sonar’ and ‘Primavera Sound Festival ‘ Holland hold ‘Dance Valley’, Other European destinations on the DJ’s list becoming bigger each year is Mykonos, a small island in Greece which has fast become the biggest new attraction for clubbers. Each year between April and September these three clubs: – Cavo Paradiso (capacity for 3000 and David Morales always holds his birthday party here in July), Space Mykonos and Paradise Club have the worlds top superstar Dj’s spin their stuff. It has become the who’s who of the Dj world and also too of the many Celebrity returning each year on their private yachts!
It’s not been just Europe Reviving the Dance scene over the years; Australia plays host to the famous ‘Earthcore’, which as from 2009 are taking the event around the world. Also in Oz Sydney hold the ‘We Love Sounds Sydney’ fest and the Rave cultured Global Gathering in Melbourne.Canada has the return of the monster ‘Mutek Festival’ at various locations around Montreal. Meanwhile in the USA, they may still heavily enjoy their rock and alternative music but the support for Dance music is still popular amongst the followers. Indeed we shall not forget the massive so American glitsy event each year- ‘The Miami Winter Dance Event’ which has grown from strength to strength. It is the largest event in the world for hosting the Dance scene to professionals such as artists, Djs, record labels, producers, promoters, radio and the media. It lasts for one week and the annual International Dance Music Awards are held here with 50 different award categories. It attracts around 62,000 event participants from 70 countries and boasts around 2,211 artist and performances from the worlds top Dj’s presented at 147 venues! This truly is a big-time who’s who not to be missed event for the dance scene. Also coming out of America is the annually Burning Man held at Black Rock Desert- Nevada. This is a headtrip for 42,000 mentalists where anything goes at this weeklong hippie riot in the desert; opportunities to either find of lose yourself! Not forgetting Detroit, the founders of Techno, they hold an event each year to celebrate its finding. Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival’ is a showcase for all House/Techno music genres and new invented future sounds too.
So there you have it, a history of dance music from the seventies right upto this present day.
Is Dance music dead?
No Chance!
In my opinion “It got knocked down, but it got up again, and is never gonna be kept down”!!
The facts are there, it is growing in more popularity each year and the kids on the streets are fascinated by the culture of the 88/89 rave days and try to re-vive the events that followed. The music itself has an ever-increasing popularity and a more diverse sound is out there catering for individual tastes. The attraction of becoming a superstar Dj is at a high as a result affordable and advanced technology on the open market. The media have brought it back to the mainstream once again, youngsters want more clubs and special events to watch their idyllic performers play their sets week in week out. The Dj has also paved the way for the VDJ, a Dj who now controls the visual from his equipment as well as the music. There is now around 100 Dance festivals held across the world, with some promoters trying to create the old days as best they can. 2008 saw The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers headline at the same Dance festival, this calibre of talent has not been seen since the 90’s. Marshall Jefferson – Move Your Body (2008 Remix) was released earlier this year, that’s 21 years after the original was made. The Orb are back to their roots with their Ambient sound and are still putting on massive amazing sound/light sets and Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty still continue to explore new avenues in music and the world of art, combining the two together. Bill has just released a book entitled “17”, about his produced choir, where nothing gets recorded or uses any beats/rhythm or lyrics/words!! Oh and how can I forget the fact that ‘Kraftwerk’, the inventors and inspiration to us all, have never stopped since 1970, that’s 38 years ago!! Over the last two years there has been an increase in remixed or new versions by original artists tracks that were first released two decades ago and over! Look around at the more increasing adverts for the ‘anthems’ and ‘best ever’ Dance albums etc etc. The superclubs are putting on more events around the country/globe due to increasing demand and promotions. I believe the electronic Dance scene has turned in full circle, so get prepared for the Rave of your life! As for us ‘old skool Raver’s’, welcome back!
