Electro-Techno
The kick stops being on every beat, and the 808 takes over.
The pattern
2 bars, sixteenth notes. Loops until you stop it.
This and broken techno are the only two grids in the family that give up four to the floor properly. It plays 1, the and of 2, beat 3 and the and of 4, and the electric snare covers beats 2 and 4 so the bar still resolves. Bar two moves the last kick from the and of 4 to the a of 3, which is the standard 808 variation and pulls the second half of the loop forward. The hats run sixteenths with the offbeats at 84, the cowbell marks the and of 1 and the and of 3 with a stray tick on the e of 4, and the single open hat per bar swaps from the and of 4 to the and of 2 across the two bars.
What it is
Techno that swaps the four to the floor for the syncopated 808 pattern that Afrika Bambaataa borrowed from Kraftwerk in 1982, then keeps the tempo and the coldness of techno on top. Drexciya are the pivot: Detroit producers who took the electro rhythm and made it strange and submerged, and everything from Dopplereffekt to Helena Hauff runs through them. The result sits between the two genres in a way that annoys purists on both sides. The kick pattern is the whole distinction, and it changes what the bass can do, because a bassline no longer has to get out of the way four times a bar.
What it sounds like
A dry 808 or 909 kick landing on 1, the and of 2 and beat 3, an electric snare cracking on 2 and 4, and hats running sixteenths with the offbeats up. A cowbell marks the and of 1 and the and of 3. Above it: a bassline with actual notes in it, cold string pads, vocoders and arpeggios that sound like a computer from 1984. The mix is bright and thin compared to peak-time techno, and the low end is a bassline rather than a sub.
Key elements
- The syncopated kickOn 1, the and of 2, beat 3 and the and of 4. Removing kicks from beats 2 and 4 is what the whole style rests on, and the snare covers those slots instead.
- Electric snare on 2 and 4A short, bright snare rather than a clap, sitting hard on the backbeat to hold the syncopated kick in place.
- CowbellThe 808 cowbell on the and of 1 and the and of 3, dry and mixed low. It is a rhythmic marker, not a hook.
- A moving basslineBecause the kick leaves gaps, the bass can play a real line with octaves and passing notes instead of sitting on the root.
- Cold synth workString machine pads, vocoded voices, FM bells. Deliberately artificial, and usually with a science fiction subject somewhere in the title.
How to get them
- KickAn 808 kick with the decay long enough to blur into the bass, or a 909 shortened to about 200ms if you want it tighter. Do not sidechain much; the pattern already leaves space.
- SnareAn electric snare with the tone bright and the snappy control up, gated to about 120ms. It should cut rather than boom, because it is the only thing on 2 and 4.
- BassA saw through a low-pass at 500Hz with envelope modulation, playing eighths that follow the kick and then run away from it. Give it a little glide between the notes the kick does not cover.
- HatsSixteenths, with the offbeats at 84 and the rest in the forties, one open hat a bar. Pitch them slightly higher than in four to the floor techno so they read as 808 rather than 909.
- PadsA string machine or a chorused saw pad, thin and slightly out of tune, sitting between 400Hz and 3kHz where the missing kicks leave a hole.
- CowbellThe 808 cowbell, unpitched, dry, at around minus eighteen. Never on a beat, always on an and, or it turns comic.
Reference points
Drexciya, Dopplereffekt, Anthony Rother, Helena Hauff, DJ Stingray, Cybotron, and the Clone and Bunker labels. Named as reference points, not as endorsements.
The pattern is a starting point rather than a rule. If you want the theory underneath why any of it works, Battuto measures it.