Initially I started off the new phase of my project by looking into the roots of warp records and the bleep techno culture that briefly engulfed the North of England at the the end of the 1980s/beginning of the 1990s. Already having a decent knowledge of this subject I decided to further expand upon by taking out the book Warp, Labels Unlimited as well as reading various on-line interviews with key people within the movement at the time such as Winston Hazel, Richard Barratt, Chris Duckenfield and Richard. H . Kirk.
Background
-Started in 1989 by Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell
-First Record released was 'Track with no name' by Forgemasters (Winston Hazel, Rob Gorden, Sean Maher)
-Arguably a natural culmination and continuation of what was already happening within Sheffield at the time:
-Was born out of the D.I.Y electronic culture that Caberet Voltaire ( as well as other groups else where such as Throbbing Gristle ) had started in the mid seventies.
-Was also deeply routed within the eclectic, multi genre, none racially exclusive night Jive Turkey which had become a cornerstone of Sheffield's and to an extent the North's night life.
-The latter point seems of particular importance as it is this lack of boundaries that undoubtedly opens the way for the unrestrained exchange and development of new ideas and ways of working.
-When you join this with the advent of new technologies, particularly more affordable synthesises and samplers which made the concept of a 'bedroom studio' possible, you begin to see how the whole movement arose.
On top of all of this is the back drop industry as Sheffield, Bradford, Leeds and Manchester are all cities with strong industrial heritages. Sheffield in particular is synonymous world wide with steel ( the first group on Warp was named after the Forgemasters steel works which is interestingly the only firm still operating within Sheffield). Arguably this is the reason for the strong sense of community and down to earth attitude which is seen as being a quintessentially Northern.
( top: Forgemasters Press release from 1989, below: archive photos from Jive Turkey )
The Global Connection: Detroit, Chicago, Berlin and beyond
My research soon began to spiral here there and everywhere when exploring the last point about the influence of industry on the development of culture. This is due to similarities between various cities around the world that have also been the centre of new forms of music and in general culture.
The obvious place to start would be Chicago and Detroit where house and later techno were founded. Much like Sheffield, Bradford, Leeds etc these were also cities which had formerly held huge importance as industrial power houses but by the 1980s had fallen into decline as traditional industry fell into decline.
In all these cities new forms of music and youth culture soon arose in reaction to this in what could be seen as a form of escapism. Therefore you soon see the culture of Detroit Techno started by the Belleville Three ( Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson ) and that of the electronic music culture within the North of England forming pieces of the same puzzle.
The deeper you look the more connections soon begin to appear such as the early electronic of Kraftwerk and Liason Dangereuse in Germany and Yellow Magic Orchestra in Japan to name just a few.
( top the Belleville Three, Bottom studio photo of Liason Dangereuse )
Main Points:
-The importance of context and background when looking at any form of culture/cultural movement
-How industry set in place certain attitudes and a sense of community which seeped through into other areas of life
-Lack of boundaries and constraints opening up new possibilities and ways of thinking
-Development of cultural movements on a global level brings with it at each stage/everytime it passes into a new setting new ideas and possibilities.
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