7. Various ArtistsFuse Ten Years Techno Music

I was given some WH Smith vouchers for a birthday or Christmas and didn’t really buy music there, then saw this album – bright yellow cover; ooh, what’s this? Techno. 

It had tracks by Vitalic, Dave Clarke, Anthony Rother, who I knew. So I spent my vouchers on it. It’s really coherently sequenced, a proper listen, not just a cash grab. It showed me what techno is, but also what it can be. One of my first boyfriends was good friends with a guy called Ian M, one of the original DJs at Trade, so we went to a few hard house clubs. I quite like hard house, but it was always really formulaic: the breakdown, a slightly cheesy sample – it didn’t feel like it was evolving or living. Techno though, it’s always evolving. Some of it’s great and some of it’s shit, but that’s the way it’s always been.