Tartan techno is a style of light techno music from Scotland, spawned through the natural progression of European techno from the early 1990's that uses catchy melodies with vocals that culminates in an instrumental piano hook arpeggio. The name is derived from the country of its origin's association with tartan.

Characteristics

Typical characteristics for tartan techno are for compositions to be around a tempo 120 to 140 BPM (beats per minute) using a 4/4 signature. Drum instruments would be that of a standard techno arrangement laid out in the traditional manner.

Sweeping strings, euphoric chords and sometimes uplifting vocals would compliment each other before gradually building into the essential piano arpeggio. This part is instrumental - thus enabling the listening crowd to respond by putting their hands in the air in a show of appreciation - before the beat again starts with all the previous elements soon played back into the mix. A repeat of this instrumental piano arpeggio likely occurs towards the last quarter of the track.

Origins

Tartan techno originated in Scotland; The Time Frequency - Futurama EP (United Rhythm, TTF 001, 1990) is considered to be one of the first records of this genre and includes all of the fore mentioned characteristics.

With the emerging rave culture occurring across Scotland during the start of 1990's from European Techno, this created the building blocks for Scotland's own populous rave culture movement. Through demand, dedicated venues would open across the country and traditional nightclubs would soon have their own specialist nights covering this new dance music.

Large rave events would be almost a weekly occurrence in Scotland from new organisers such as Awesome 101, Fantasia, Jigsaw, Meltdown, Rezerection and Technodrome who all provided a mixture of new local based DJ's and live performing acts.

Material not necessarily from Scotland could be deemed as part of the clan. During the early rave period, there were various tracks of this particular style mainly from the European continent that proved popular only in Scotland. The remainder of the UK followed the developing Breakbeat hardcore sound.

Foreign artists including Belgium's Praga Khan and Jade 4U toured extensively at clubs and raves primarily in Scotland during the early 1990's due to the success of their material in the country. Jade 4U, partly responsible behind many of the big name tracks in Europe at that time such as Lords of Acid, must of considered the country as viable to her music career.

"To top it all off we started a tour in Scotland. What an amazing country. So beautiful! The people were so friendly that I almost considered moving there." - Jade 4U

Terrorize - It's Just A Feeling (Hamster Records, 12 STER 01, 1992) and N-Trance - Set You Free (All Around The World, 12 GLOBE 124, 1994) and other acts would also have similar success in the country that would later filter across to the rest of the UK. Both Set You Free releases are incidentally remixed by Scottish acts Liberation and The Time Frequency.

"During this time the band had started to gig regularly and the reaction to 'Set You Free' in clubs (especially in Scotland) was phenomenal. This led to the song's second release, which actually made the top 40" - N-Trance

Noticeable artists

Acts such as Suburban Delay, The Time Frequency, Q-Tex, QFX and Ultra-Sonic would prove to be at the front of the scene, regularly appearing at events through the country whilst trying to write the next anthem.

The Time Frequency's debut release, the unsigned white label Futurama EP (United Rhythm, TTF 001, 1990) sold 10,000 copies within the first 8 weeks in 1990. They soon recorded seven number one hits in Scotland, had material in the national UK Top 40 and sold over 3 million records worldwide.

QFX debut album Freedom (Epidemic Records, EPI 003, 1994) entered the UK chart at number 5 and stayed in the top 20 for 14 weeks in 1994. As well as several other tracks entering the UK chart, they also remixed material for artists including Moby and Gala; the later earning QFX a gold disc for reward of 600,000 record sales.

Ultra-Sonic sold 400,000 units worldwide in less than 3 years. They would release 14 singles, 5 albums and 2 full-length tour videos by 1998, with their debut Obsession (Clubscene Records, CSRT003, 1992) release instantly selling 6,000 copies in Scotland before being deleted. "Arpeggio" (Clubscene, CSRT023, 1993) would stay for six weeks in the UK chart and later shift 56,000 units in Germany.

Tom Wilson, the much respect dance music radio host of Steppin' Out that ran for 14 years since 1985 would achieve much success with his Techno Cat (Steppin' Out Records, IAN 020 T, 1994) track charting in several countries in Europe, with it still regularly featuring in many definitive compilations such as The History Of Techno (ZYX Music, ZYX 74004-2, 1996).

Tom Wilson's profile would also extend to compiling several compilations, most notably Tom Wilson's Tartan Techno (Tempo Toons, TOONCD 101, 1995) that includes much of the previously mentioned songs from these different Scottish groups.

Noticeable local record labels include 23rd Precinct Recordings, Clubscene Records, Massive Respect Records, Shoop!, Steppin' Out and United Rhythm.

Development of Tartan Techno

Whilst most of the artists enjoyed commercial success with much national daytime airplay, the new native Bouncy Techno movement was quickly proving to be extremely popular by late 1993.

Due to the quicker tempo and harder styled melodies found in Bouncy Techno; Tartan Techno could not be as easily set into a DJ mix set without increasing the actual rotational speed of the turntable, thus causing unnecessary and sometimes ridiculously sounding higher pitched music and vocals.

In most cases, producers adapted and created either faster material or Bouncy Techno and other similar hardcore music of that time outright to meet trends. Interestingly The Time Frequency, Ultra-Sonic and several other acts have all since reformed in 2004 after several years in hibernation.

Miscellaneous

A column in the 23 October, 2004, edition of the Daily Record newspaper citing indigenous Scottish words based on yearly trends in society listed Tartan Techno as their entry for 1994.

External links

• 23rd Precinct Recordings - Official website
• Clubscene Records - Official website
• The Time Frequency - Official website
• Ultra-Sonic - Official website