With the rise in popularity of techno in Europe in the late 80s, the crusade of electronic music was just beginning. In Germany, particularly in centers like Berlin (Dr. Motte, Westbam) and Frankfurt (Talla 2XLC, Sven Väth), a new type of underground culture emerged through techno. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the ongoing competition with Frankfurt were extremely revitalizing for both cities, leading to the emergence of clubs like Dorian Gray/Omen and E-Werk in Berlin.

​

The constant contact with Detroit Techno continually fertilized the scene. Juan Atkins, Blake Baxter, and Eddie Flashin' Fowlkes played at Tresor and released music through the club's label. Under the supervision of Ralf Hildenbeutel and Sven Väth in Frankfurt, the labels Harthouse and Eye Q Records emerged, releasing tracks by Earth Nation, Kox Box, and Der Dritte Raum, paving the way for the future birth of the Goa scene.

​

Meanwhile, the MFS (Masterminded For Success) label emerged in Berlin with projects by Cosmic Baby, Voov, Paul Van Dyk, and Mijk van Dijk. The Superstition label in Hamburg became a launch base for techno and trance, releasing music by Oliver Lieb (The Ambush, Paragliders, LSG, Spicelab). 

 

The techno scene established itself in England with DJs like Carl Cox and his Ultimate B.A.S.E. party (London), and major electronic music festivals like Tribal Gathering began to emerge. The largest techno event in the world is the Love Parade, which gathers millions of people every year on the streets of Berlin. (EDIT 2024: After a disastrous edition in 2010 where some people were trampled to death, the producers of the Love Parade decided to no longer continue the event).

​

While many techno producers succumbed to the mainstream hype and traded innovation for quick chart positions, the psychedelic trance scene found increasing appreciation among followers of the saturated techno scene. But that's a topic for the next edition.

​

BRAZIL

Denis Kandle

The techno scene in Brazil arrived later, around the late 80s/early 90s, initially through DJ Zé Roberto Mahr. As a flight attendant, he had the privilege of frequently browsing record stores in London and New York. At the time, he played at Crepúsculo de Cubatão (Rio de Janeiro). He also had a program on Radio Fluminense FM, called Novas Tendências, where he sometimes played techno tracks when this style was virtually unknown in Brazil.

​

In the early 90s, the Mercado Mundo Mix (Rio), an alternative product fair, started using techno as the soundtrack for its events, introducing many people to the style. Soon after, parties began to be held in amusement parks like BITCH, at Tivoli Park, and in warehouses like Val-Demente, which took place at various locations, including Fundição Progresso, with DJs playing techno and house music. Meanwhile, the club Dr. Smith in Rio de Janeiro started hosting its first techno parties.

​

In Rio, DJ Maurício Lopes launched the Oops! party at Guetto in Botafogo. This party was frequented by clubbers and had a great atmosphere since the techno hype had not yet contaminated the mainstream, and the "mauricinhos" and "patricinhas" (Brazilian slang for preppy boys and girls) had not yet frequented electronic parties (which they considered to be for queers and drug users). Other great parties like Hyper Club and THC also started popping up.​ DJ Ricardo NS was the resident DJ at the After party, which took place at various locations, including Basement, a small, stuffy club in Galeria Alaska, Copacabana, Rio. The party was always packed and usually started around 4 AM on Saturday night and went until noon.

​

Techno also made its way to São Paulo with DJs like Mau Mau and Camilo Rocha. The legendary Hell's Club emerged, which was also always packed and where parties also started at 4 AM. In 1997, the compilation Electronic Brasil was released by the Mercado Mundo Mix label. This was one of the first Brazilian electronic music records to be commercially released, featuring tracks by Mau Mau, Habitants, Loop B, Level 202, etc.

​

This was the golden age of the techno scene in Brazil. There was truly an underground scene, but the media, as usual, decided to ruin the party. A Globo TV soap opera featured an actress playing a stereotypical clubber, leading to a common misconception about clubbers. The newspaper O Globo published a front-page article in the Segundo Caderno with the title "Techno - the wave of the next summer." Many clubbers stopped attending the parties because they were overrun by playboys and people who had nothing to do with the scene. The Oops! party ended, Hell's Club closed, and Val-Demente split into two parties: Val, which catered to the then-called GLS (gay, lesbian, and supporters) audience and still played techno (unfortunately, the party did not last long), and X-Demente, which does not play techno and is attended 90% by stereotypical shirtless gay men.

​

In Rio, the scene was stagnant, with a few nightclubs occasionally hosting techno parties, like Phunky Budah in Ipanema, but these parties did not last long. The light at the end of the tunnel came with the opening of Bunker 94 in Copacabana, in the former location of the gay club Le Boy. Clubbers once again had an alternative space, with parties dedicated entirely to techno like Cubik, hosted by DJs Mauricio Lopes and Ricardo NS (EDIT 2024: after a few years, Bunker closed and became a branch of the retail chain Lojas Americanas...). Even before Bunker opened, the BUM (Brazilian Underground Movement) group started organizing parties in Baixada Fluminense and the north zone of Rio, formed by DJs like Péricles, André Lima, etc. Despite the recent death of its founder, Péricles, BUM continues to be active.

​

By the second half of the 90s, the first raves started to appear in the state of São Paulo. In Rio, the first rave was the Bunker Rave in 2000, which took place at Fazenda dos Prazeres in Vargem Grande. Raves also started to pop up on the sands of Ipanema almost every Saturday. Currently, there are several nightclubs in São Paulo that play techno; there are also cool parties happening in major capitals of the country, such as Curitiba, Goiânia, Recife, Campinas, Brasília, and many others. In Rio, there are few. Unfortunately, the techno scene inflated, and many other nightclubs claim to play techno but are merely taking advantage of the term, as these parties have nothing to do with techno. Nowadays, techno, in the conception of many people, is a type of commercial, disposable electronic music with pop appeal that plays on FM radio, which is far from what the original techno scene was. But fortunately, there are still some oases where you can dance and listen to Techno, with a capital T, please.