Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk [Paperback]

Dan Sicko (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1999 | ISBN-10: 0823084280 | ISBN-13: 978-0823084289

The first authoritative American chronicle of the most innovative trend in contemporary music, this appraisal is a must for all followers of what's hottest in music today.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“As techno, the music, continues to spread worldwide, and techno, the idea, becomes slipperier with the years, Dan Sicko's thorough, intimate account of the music's origins is more relevant than ever. It confirms Detroit techno's legacy as one of those miraculous cultural accidents—a collision of time, place, technology, and individuals—that catch the world off-guard and keep resonating long after the original signal has faded, at every imaginable frequency.” —Philip Sherburne, columnist for The Wire and Pitchfork “Reading Dan Sicko's Techno Rebels is like having a conversation with a really cool friend who has a great memory and also happens to have been present, hanging around, talking to the right people, at one of the most interesting periods musically in this city's musically crucial history.” —Jerry Herron, dean of the Irvin D. Reid Honors College at Wayne State University and author of AfterCulture: Detroit and the Humiliation of History (Wayne State University Press, 1993) Praise for the first edition of Techno Rebels: “Dan Sicko demonstrates an acute awareness of the racial, cultural, and historical implications of the late twentieth century’s digital soundtrack, exploring it with a depth that few have captured in print.” —Raymond Lee Roker, publisher of Urb “A fast-paced, highly intelligent volume that makes for both a fun read and a killer resource.” —Colin Berry, Wired --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Billboard Books (May 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823084280
• ISBN-13: 978-0823084289
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,431,155 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reviewer above misses the point., February 25, 2000

By 

Monny (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk (Paperback)

I think the reviewer above who complains about Sicko's lack of information on hardcore and trance has somewhat missed the point. This book exists, as the author stated above, to show the ignorant American that techno was, in fact, a music indigenous to his/her country. Techno isn't trance and it isn't hardcore. If you want to read about trance there's all too many books. If you want to read about techno there are very few. All credit to Sicko for trying to rectify that.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly encapsulates Techno's evolution!, March 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk (Paperback)

Techno Rebels has its facts right, but beyond the content it's incredibly well-written. So the facts come alive -- you come to understand the personalities and philosophies of a youth movement out of Detroit, and it's compelling to see that movement expand throughout the world. This book gives a story and a soul to music so often charactarized as "mechanical" or "artificial." I highly recommend this to fans not only of techno, but anyone interested in any kind of music, movement, or the evolution of a culture.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I expected more, October 31, 1999

By 

Christian Molstrom (Portland, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk (Paperback)

As a book on the artists behind techno, Sicko's work is quite good. It is packed with names, dates, albums, tunes, clubs, and so forth, as one would expect from a music journalist. But as a work on techno, the art, I found the book to have some glaring holes. He does not discuss the technology of techno, he does not discuss the techniques developed by techno artists, and he does not really explore the question of what really aesthetically distinguishes techno from other music forms (I would expect a chapter devoted to each subject). But this book did not set out to answer these questions, I don't think -- an indication perhaps that the critical thinking on techno is still in its infancy.