Techno techno techno

I'm starting my research on my next novel and I need some recommendations for music! The novel is set in a nightclub that plays an invented variation of techno. I'm looking for real-world artists and tracks for inspiration and reference.

Now, I'm not that up on electronic genres. I know what I like but I may get stuck on exact terminology. Please bear with me...

The aesthetic at play is synthetic above all. This is not funky house. This is machine music with perfectly quantized beats.

That also means vocals should be either absent or not the focus here. This is not easy listening music. It's cold, dark, and clinical. A beat like a sledgehammer, 140-160 bpm, with no let up.

But there should be some atmosphere to it, not just bass and a beat. Ethereal pads, stabbing leads, and reverb-laced FX are all welcome. If it's something you could imagine playing over a Blade Runner cityscape, or while Hunter-Killers crush skulls under their steel tracks, you're in the right area.

The closest reference I have aesthetically is from DnB - in that world, we're at the intersection of tech step and neurofunk. Artists like Black Sun Empire, Teebee, Mindscape, Cause4Concern, and Optiv are the right area.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!

Thanks, Xelebes, I'll have a listen to those.

I've not heard the term "tieum" before - can you enlighten me?

Cheers!

I can hear what you mean in the Fracture4 set. It's a distinct sound from the gabber- and old-skool HXC-style overdriven 808 kick, isn't it? Got a bit more of a roll to it.

Finally got around to listening to some of this stuff - thanks once again for the recs, Xelebes.

There were moments in things like the Fracture4 set that were pretty much bang on, and I was happy to hear some of Aphex Twin's SAW II tracks with a beat underneath them in the Ursula Frequency set I caught - that was pretty much how I'd first described the style in my early notes, before I codified it a bit more.

Overall, though, there's a dirtiness to the production styles on those genres that isn't quite right. Using those references as jumping off points, it appears that what I'm thinking of has the timbre of tech trance - clean, digital, well-produced - with the musical content of the darkcore you linked - textural, less melodic, none of the trance features like breakdowns and rushes. So some sort of hybrid.

I think I've got enough to work with for now - probably the next step is to fire up Cubase and lay down some tracks in the style I'm imagining, then see if those spark any new recommendations.

Thanks!