Interstate

I‘m not really a ‘techno-ambient’ music lover: however, as someone trying to enjoy different styles of music during my twenties I ended up listening and buying into several techno-DJs and musicians. During the early 90s, System 7 became the rage: I happened to like their ‘Interstate’ track, and that only because of the first part (30+ second sound bite). There’s not really much to tell about System 7 except for that they’re still around and that their website reminds of the pre-2000-webdesign age. I think I remember that they had this same webpage in 1996 too. I’m not kidding.

Back to the personal bit: There were basically two clubs in my old hometown. One club focused on playing ‘alternative rock music’ and the other one a mix-and-mash of, uh, well, whatever it’s called nowadays, “house and techno”? I only visited the latter on one occasion and I remember the huge video screens playing psychedelic movieclips (sort of like what your current Windows Mediaplayer is playing) and me overlooking the crowdy dancefloor, probably drinking a soda, because it was still too early in the night to drink alcohol. When the tune of “Interstate” started, I remember asking the DJ the specifics of the track, so that I could buy it the next time I was close to a record shop.

This is not the whole story: System 7 also made it to Roskilde ’96 (they were actually so popular that they played at many of the European Pop fests that year), and obviously, I was there too. This is also where I discovered that live performances of Techno-music can be rather uninspiring and, I quickly forgot about this event. Not really, of course: the music of ‘Interstate’ came back to mind when we were driving the Trans-Canada Highway, last week, for no other reason than reminding me of those uneventful couple of nights.