Genre Analysis
Techno / Trance / Psy
Techno
According to Dan Sicko (his real name) techno emerged out of Detroit in the 80’s, driven in the main by a trio of locals affectionately called The Belleville Three.
The three — Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson — would drive the genre forward through their own experimentation as music producers. Their blend of music drew on multiple points of influence. Most notably was the synthesized, electronic music emerging out of Europe. Of particular importance, was the music by German band Kraftwerk.
The trio were impressed with what they described as the clean and precise sounds of Kraftwerk. British author Kodwo Eshun, would famously state that:
Kraftwerk are to Techno what Muddy Waters is to the Rolling Stones: the authentic, the origin, the real.
Of equal relevance here are the themes of futurism and technological advancement, central to the American consciousness of the 1980’s.
Alvin Toffler published a book in the 80's entitled The Third Wave in which he describes the transition, developed countries would make from an age of industry, to an age of information. Central to this discussion though, is the term he coined in the book, techno rebels, which Juan Atkins would adopt to describe the music he was trying to make.
Techno, in the sense that he and others were using technology (electronic synthesizers/drum machines) to create music for the first time; rebels, in the sense that they rejected the R&B/soul legacy of Motown which Detroit was so well known.

Style
Techno like any good dance music (personal opinion) is dominated by rhythm. Some techno producers focus acutely on this aspect and employ syncopation & polyrhythm to add complex groove to their music. This is quite necessary, as music with a heavy focus on drums will become stale quickly if the rhythm it provides does not evolve and keep the listener (or dancer) engaged.
The time signature is common time (4/4), with a kick drum firing on every quarter note, a snare/clap on every 2nd & 4th note and a hi-hat filling up the spaces in between. Tempo (particularly in my experience) tends to hover between 120–130 BPM, with most songs at either 125 or 126 BPM.
Derrick May of The Belleville Three likens techno to tribalism; in his view, techno is very bass oriented, very drum oriented and very percussive.
As such, techno can be quite ‘dark,’ quite melancholic. It has none of the harmonically rich, supersaw synths of trance. Further, techno producers rarely use intelligible vocals to drive a song forward; when vocals are used, it is in the form of heavily processed vocal samples to either create atmosphere, or as a percussive element to help augment the rhythm.
One final note before an example; techno is DJ friendly and as such most songs are designed to be played in continuous DJ sets, often spanning multiple hours. The majority of techno songs far exceed the normal length of pop music (around 3 minutes) and as such can seem repetitive to the uninitiated.
Techno by its design is long, it’s progressive and is designed to slowly work listeners into a state of rhythmic trance; or as Derrick May would say, it’s a tribal experience.
Solitary Daze is a hauntingly beautiful track and perfectly captures the melancholy atmosphere I mentioned prior. It is set at a tempo of 125 BPM and it’s nigh on 8 minutes long.
Worth pointing out first, is the DJ friendly introduction. The initial ‘drop’ is around 1:02; that’s over a minute of subtle build up. This first drop sequence of kick, (gritty but subby) bass and atmosphere continues for about 3 minutes, slowly adding percussive layers. The first layer added around 1:32 is some kind of percussive element (perhaps originally a hi hat pattern) which has been processed using (at least) a flanger to add the rising and falling movement you can hear. The main hi hat, a gentle shaker sample, which fires on every 2nd 1/8th note, gently creeps in to the mix just before 2:10. An airy pad fills in the mix around 2:18 helping to augment the melancholy atmosphere. A melodic pattern emerges around 2:49 with the source of the sound changing as the song progresses, but again, augmenting the beautifully grim mood of the song.
Incredibly (even for techno) the first instance of a snare features around 4:06. From this point the rhythm is beefed up with white noise blasts and evolving textures, before the kick and bass fade away completely at 4:53 for the song’s breakdown. The flanged, percussive layer flexes its muscles here before the second ‘drop’ around 5:38. The song continues with no new elements added before cutting to a DJ friendly outro of around 30 seconds before the song’s conclusion.
I picked this song for a few reasons. First, it is purely instrumental; no vocals whatsoever, not even processed samples. The percussion is dominated by the flanging effect which maintains the interest of the listener through its constant evolution. The song is quite dark and very moody, helped by the reliance on the bassline to carry the song forward. Even the drums have been processed to make them dark or gentle as I described before. Often the only difference between techno and tech house for instance, is the noisy and sometimes harsh use of hi-hats and cymbals to create energy. Solitary Daze does have hi-hats but they are subdued to fit the darker atmosphere of the track. In fact all the samples, including the snare and even the kick drum are subdued, lacking the kind of punch that we will hear from our next two genres.
Trance & Psy

Trance comes in many flavors, often with only minor differences at the borders of each sub-genre. For the purpose of this blog I am going to refer to trance as an umbrella term which incorporates vocal trance and uplifting trance. The main distinction I want to make, is between this general trance and psychedelic or psy trance. To minimize confusion I will refer to them as trance and psy.
Trance and psy share a common origin, as both developed primarily out of Germany in the 1990’s. The development of psy goes back even further though; it can trace its lineage back to the hippie culture of Goa and the emergence of Goa trance in 1980’s India.
Both trance and psy tend to be similar to techno in a variety of ways. They are both DJ friendly. Trance in particular almost exclusively features extended drum intros and outros for easy mixing. Psy features intros too, but often these are drum free and tend to introduce atmosphere or melody instead, making them less DJ friendly than their trance counterparts.
Most trance and psy songs are long. This allows the gradual progression of musical elements to move listeners into a trance-like-state. Whereas techno tends to focus on drums, trance attempts to overpower its audience emotionally with harmonically rich sounds and soaring melodies. The common refrain from Armin van Buuren’s radio show A State of Trance is that the music will take you to a “higher state” of consciousness.
Psy does feature melody, but is darker than trance and more similar to techno, in that the focus is on drums and bassline. Psy is like a faster, punchier version of techno, but differs in that it does not shy away from melody and harmony. There is a lot of crossover between these three genres, and I will break this down further with some examples.
Both genres are set in common time (4/4) like techno, and both tend to sit in a tempo range of between 128–150 BPM, with psy occupying the majority of the higher tempos. Trance tends to hover at around 132 BPM, and the increase in tempo is usually defined by the time of night the music is played. For instance, so called ‘peak time trance’ tends to be faster by design so it’s common to find this music set between 134–136 BPM.
The influence of Armin van Buuren’s Who’s Afraid of 138?! record label in particular, has seen a sharp increase in the amount of music set at 138 BPM, but this tends to be the upper limit of trance.
Psy though tends not to be slower than 135 BPM and follows a similar strategy in that the time of day the music should be played, dictates the tempo. More intense psy occupies the tempo range above 140.
Let’s look at an example of trance:
Our Way Home is a beautiful piece of music, with a very uplifting theme.
The first thing to notice is the familiar extended drum intro, with the first drop featuring at 1:11. Its similarities to Solitary Daze end there though, as the intro in Our Way Home is far busier and uses far more aggressive hi-hats, designed to create energy. Also worth noting, is how much more attack the kick drum has. Whereas the drums in Solitary Daze were quite muted, the drums in Our Way Home are incredibly punchy. Solitary Daze allows you to merely listen to it, where Our Way Home demands that you get up and move to it.
The bassline is also far richer harmonically than that in Solitary Daze. Although it does still contain a healthy dose of sub energy, it fills out far more of the space in the higher frequencies.
The most important thing to note though, is the introduction of vocals at 1:40. The vocals of Audrey Gallagher are a key feature of this song and help drive it forward and sell the emotional message.
The track builds in intensity until a mid-song breakdown around 2:50 where the drums disappear. Space is created, and an energetic reprise is afforded before anticipation for the main drop is built. This is the most important part of this song, and indeed in any trance song, and the breakdown here is nearly 2 minutes long!
The space for Our Way Home is left for the vocals to really shine. The heavy use of reverb should be instantly noticeable, which helps create the sense of grandeur and space. The breakdown really kicks up a gear a 3:46 where the vocal is augmented with a typical trance supersaw; a rich blend of sawtooth waves, often layered with white noise to overpower and uplift the listener emotionally. This is the arms in the sky moment and creates an intense climax which peaks at 4:14. At this point, the majority of the higher frequency content is filtered out to build anticipation for the main drop of the song.
At 4:57 the main drop occurs. This moment should be a point of complete release where all the tension and emotion built up in the nearly 2 minute long breakdown can be channeled into dancing. This is also the part where all the elements of the song other than the vocal are present, and the main melody rings out.
At around 6:23 the extended outro begins, and its design for a DJ can be heard. The energy of the song is maintained during the outro, and is typically busy with multiple drum elements continuing to fire, making mixing a breeze.
Let’s move on to psy:
Before is an excellent example of the interpolation of both techno and trance into psy-trance. It contains all the percussion and drum focus of techno and the soaring emotions of trance.
It is far more somber than Our Way Home, but far more aggressive than Solitary Daze. Again this comes down to the attack of the drum samples. Psy is particularly kick and bass-centric so it goes without saying that the kick and bass will be very punchy.
Before highlights what I said prior about psy having drum-less intros. The intro is over a minute long but has no drums. Instead it sets up the main progression and atmosphere of the song. At 0:58 is a mini-break, where a trance song may have transitioned into a drop. Before, like most psy of this kind takes an extra 12 bars or so to further build anticipation for the drop, which will hit you in the gut if played loud enough!
A typical psy progression ensues, with the song divided into 8/16 and 32 bar loops, adding additional musical elements at these intervals. Drum and percussion patterns are stacked, with gated vocal samples and an overlaying of the melody from the intro interspersed throughout. Worth noting are the elaborate white noise swells which build up and release at the 16 & 32 bar intersections to help create movement and energy.
At 3:08 the breakdown begins with the elimination of all drums and a massive plucky sound, drenched in reverb to help with the transition.
Again, like Our Way Home, the space created in the breakdown is for the vocals to shine through. Two main differences poke through though. First, the intro in Before is far shorter. Secondly, while Our Way Home was intended to uplift and overwhelm the listener prior to a drop, Before uses the breakdown simply to create variation; it’s a natural segue between two verses. Our Way Home had a clear energetic peak which the breakdown had to facilitate. Before doesn’t need to reach those energetic heights and the excitement comes through the success of the kick and bass drum groove.
In this sense Before is far deeper and darker than Our Way Home and similarly groovy like Solitary Daze. It is still trance, but the emotion is more macabre and the intention is to make you groove, instead of move you through emotional peaks and troughs.

In Summary
Techno = percussion, rhythm
Trance = melody, energy, emotion
Psy = kick and bass
References
Eshun, K. (1998). More brilliant than the sun: Adventures in sonic fiction. Interlink Publishing Group Incorporated.
Fassbender, T. (2005). The Trance Experience: An Introduction to Electronic Dance Music. Knoxville, Tenn.: Sound. org.
Magadini, P. (2001). Polyrhythms: the musician’s guide.
Sicko, D. (2010). Techno rebels: The renegades of electronic funk. Wayne State University Press.
Snoman, R. (2012). The dance music manual: tools, toys and techniques. CRC Press.
St John, G. (2010). The local scenes and global culture of psytrance. Routledge.
Toffler, A., & Alvin, T. (1981). The third wave (pp. 32–33). New York: Bantam books.
