Viva il sotterraneo!
5
By 'ardcore junglist
A few years after the turn of the millennium, techno and electro artists like the Hacker, Dexter, Tiga, Ellen Allien and the International DeeJay Gigolo crew finally wrested control of club culture from the suffocating clutches of trance-by-numbers and death-by-slow-progressive DJ's. Upon doing so they planted the seed for the next explosion of underground electronic music just now coming into fruition.
Meanwhile after years of outright dissing and then generally resisting the techno revival and the electroclash explosion, the "ex-progressives" have now jumped aboard that bandwagon when the electro "fad" they had long derided became a genuine threat to their careers. As attendance dropped at events at which they headlined and struggling promoters finally stopped paying trance/progressive DJ fees, the ex-progressives switched gears with their tales between their legs. Although they still quite don't "get it" and their sound is still way too "safe", at least we know they no longer laugh all the way to the bank with our money.
By outdoing punk at its own game and avoiding the major labels who were "trance-fixed" on progressive for so long, underground DIY electronic music culture (not just techno and electro but also drum'n'bass, grime, dubstep, etc.) will always control its own destiny. Fortunately, the Hacker, Dexter, Tiga and the rest make the rules rather than follow them, and iTunes has blessed all of us with access to their music.
