Cybotron – Alleys Of Your Mind

Very Kraftwerk-ish. I just thought of "Wir sind die Roboter" when listening to this. So, how Cybotron came up with this sound? ;)

Let's also not forget that Eddy Grant's "Time Warp" came out in 1977.

'Alleys Of Your Mind' is more or less an instrumental cover version of Ultravox's 'Mr X', from their 1980 album Vienna, the German version 'Herr X' was on the B-side of the Vienna 12". 'Cosmic Raindance' is also influenced heavily by OMD's 'Electricity' (1979) especially the baseline. I like the way that this shows a direct link in the migration from UK Synth Pop/New Wave into Detroit Techno/Electro. There are many other examples of this but I feel that this particular release is one of the most important links in the evolution of electronic music.

Juan Atkins elucidated, in an interview for Electronic Standards, what was the 1st Techno piece ever: “There was a lot of discrepancy about ‘Sharevary’. Cybotron came first, and it came even before the name of the cartoon of the Transformers. The name was a combination of a Cyborg and a Cyclotron (machine that accelerate atomic particles).
You have to listen to it, whatever it could be, it could be: a social cometary about the state of the World; just something to not be the same old love type of song, you know? We always made a point to say something meaningful, and we just wanted to bring the attention of the listener to the true state of the World.”
Then, about the music genres confusion and the first landmark, the originator concluded, without hesitation:
“I don’t really separate Techno from Electro.
As far as Detroit Techno is concerned, this was the first Techno Tune ever.”

I couldn't care less about trying to find styles trying to label this record, or who was first this and that. What matters is that this is a very good record.

the cybotron vs sharevari "who was first / more techno" question leads to nothing imo :-)

you could easily name loads of earlier stuff or records released in the same year that could be equally classified as proto techno, whatever. For example "throbbing gristle - hot on the heels of love", or "visage - frequency 7" what is a kind of sci-fi techno (and by the way massively inspired the some detroit artists ..).. and what a about "new music - 24 hours from culture" from 1981? this is nothing less than new beat, 5 years before "a split second".. not to speak about kraftwerk - it goes on and on :-)

the same with chicago house.. jesse saunders - on and on, the first house record? yes, i a way, but check out the one year earlier "the broads - sing sing (Mega Be-Bop-Mix)". pure proto chicago jack house beat the first minutes ..

I'm curious why Sharevari is even an argument compared to this. Sharevari is clearly influenced by an amalgamation of dance music from the 70s and of course a heavy helping of Kraftwerk. No elements found in the first Cybotron record. The only thing that could be correlated is the vocal phrasing but even that is a stretch. One record is a nod to the past and one creating the future sound of detroit and then the world. Sharevari is pure novelty rarity fun stuff and way overrated ( i'll sell my copies of Sharevari any day without hesitation but not my 7" cybotron)

Mine is framed & mounted like a shrine. About as historically important to Detroit Techno as Darwin to the natural world. Of all the overpriced hyped (& often recent) records listed on this site, if one truly deserved a huge price tag, surely this is it. This didn't kick start a scene, it paved the way for modern dance music. Its influences are infinite, as with the Funk, Motown, electronic & european pop music which influenced it.

I carry the eternal pain of holding a very beat up copy! A source of much frustration...

On the subject on what came first, better to look at the roots of electronic music. There is 'proto- techno' dating back to the 1940's, perhaps even beyond...

Artists like Raymond Scott, Tom Dissevelt and Dick Raaijmakers were experimenting with repetition via manipulating tape through duping/doubling to create echo/reverb/delay, & editing. This is long before Steve Reich, & they are but just a few of many.If you scan their work, you will find some noise experiments that clearly form a sensibility akin to the techno blueprint.

For house and techno the Italo & EU disco sound, & UK early electro (new romantic era) had a crucial role to play. In fact a good few of those tracks I'd call techno.

Another genre that rarely gets a mention is dub. Its pure techno!! & was no doubt heard in family homes for many of the pioneering techno godfathers, those coming from Jamaican/African descent.

“There was a lot of discrepancy about ‘Sharevari’. Cybotron came first, and it came even before the name of the cartoon of the Transformers. The name was a combination of a Cyborg and a Cyclotron (machine that accelerate atomic particles).
You have to listen to it, whatever it could be, it could be - social commentary about the state of the World – just something to not be the same old love type of song, you know? We always made a point to say something meaningful, and we just wanted to bring the attention of the listener to the true state of the World.
As far as Detroit Techno is concerned, it was this one the first Techno tune.
I don’t really separate Techno from Electro." (Juan Atkins Interview, Sept 2007)

I love this record. It is perhaps the ultimate collision of Bernie Worrell, Junie Morrison, John Foxx and Ultravox. All I know is it is was funkier than "Mr. X" or "Herr X" by Ultravox, but it is pretty similar in patterns, basslines, lack of hi hats etc. Its biggest similarity to Shari Vari other than being from a Detroit party crew and being released in similar time is that the bassline usually only happens in the first half of the bar, leaving this great space, similar to the bass synth in Kano "I'm Ready".