Firstly, no it’s not a typo! Technoist is the new moniker of, you’ve guessed it, The Teknoist. Technoist will be replacing Fyerhammer for his techno output from now. RIP Fyerhammer, welcome Technoist!
The debut Technoist album, Maximal Techno, is out today on the wonderful Love Love Records and is full of techno jams inspired by his travels to Thailand and America. As well as audio previews and direct purchase links below, we’ve also collated individual track descriptions from the man himself, giving us an insight to his thoughts, reasons and inspirations for each piece.
The name of the album, ‘Maximal Techno’, might, at first glance, make you just think that it’s all techno tracks that are just balls out bangers, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It kinda just means, ‘the opposite of minimal techno’, maybe i should have called the album that. It’s far from a traditional techno release. Some of the tracks aren’t very techno at all but i started a techno album and this is what came out. I think it’s a very summer album and I have fantasies of it being played on your mini-rig’s at festivals this year. I’m planning on going to Stonehenge on the day it comes out, which is also summer solstice. Maybe ingesting something hallucinogenic and watching the sun set, whilst listening to it… on a mini-rig.
Dist Fever: This track was first released on the amazing label, lesiuresystem under my (now defunct) alias ‘Fyerhammer’, on a ltd SD card compilation. It’s a great launching point for the album and is perfect as the opening track.
Gabby in Manarola: I think most of the tracks I write are an homage, in one way or another, to people that I know or have met along my travels and adventures. There are two tracks on the album about Gabby. Both of which contain recordings from her trip to Europe, sent to me via Whatsapp and me starting the tracks the second i got them, as we chatted. This one, as stated, has recordings of her in the Friday evening streets of Manarola, Italy. Catching people talking and shouting to eachother. This track is less techno than others but keeps it pretty ravey. Like i said, it’s a summer album, I believe. I think you can feel that here.
Blizzard: I wrote this tune in an actual blizzard whilst living in Queens, New York for a few months. It started as a concept piece for a score that I’m writing for Shaun Gillon’s debut comic. He told me the premise of a scene, where, elders of an alien race were conducting a kind of ritual psychic ceremony. Tribal and psychadelic sounds and dancing would give way to visions of the future and epiphane’s. He sent me concept sketches of the race as he was telling me this. I immediately had a scene in my mind and a soundtrack to it. This is what came out. The blizzarding snow outside my Astoria window, all scattered and chaotic helped with the almost random sounding arpeggio type synths, representing the psychadelic sights that they would see, breaking through time and space and dimensions. The drums, the sound of the Yuchena (name of the alien race), banging their ceremony drum, bringing forth the visions.
Cashmere Crowsfeet: I love the track, ‘Superman’, by Robert Hood and the original idea for this track was to write something with a similar drive and feel. It ended up almost with a psy trance feel. I’m really looking forward to playing some DJ or live sets of all this material soon, so I can see how these style mutations go down. The track name was inspired by a hashtag my friend, ‘Meg’, used once. Her deadpan and dry comments are often very funny.
Intermission: I first wrote ‘Underground’ under my ‘The Teknoist’s Fyerhammer Project’ in 2003. It was released maybe a year or so later. I’ve reworked it a few times since and this is the best version yet. There is just something about that ‘techno from inside of a washing machine’ vibe that I fucking love. There is also a pretty cool homage to Wakanda, in the layers.
Gabby on the Beach: This is the second track about Gabby and her trip to Europe. This is again, quite self explanatory. She was sending me audio clips over Whatsapp of the ocean, the sound of her feet on the rocks. I started the tracks the second i got them. This has a kind of late 90’s/early 2000’s German trance vibe to it tbh. The arps at least. The drums and bass have got layers of the recordings processed with it to give it an extra organic feel. It’s a bit of an epic track at almost 10 minutes long. I like, epic.
Monica’s Friday Jam: I have a silly thing about Monica from Friends. Not a sexual thing. I just wanna give her a big hug all the time. Her use of hair clips is also nice. I’ve made a track on my techno label ‘Fire Hammer’ (check bandcamp) named Monica’s Thursday Jam. Named after the episode that she’s making jam to get over Richard. I’m gonna do a jam for every day of the week, eventually… Cool story, bro.
Mirakuru: Two of my all time favourite techno tracks are ‘To the Sky’ by Pump Panel and ‘Kreck’ by Speedy J. This is an homage to those 2 tracks. Mirakuru is the name of a serum created by the Japanese to give inhuman abilities to their soldiers during World War 2. Created under unknown circumstances by unknown parties, the only samples of the drug encountered thus far were on a submarine which was accidentally beached in the China Sea on a small island called Lian Yu. These words are entirely fictional… apart from the Speedy J and Pump Panel bit.
Pull: Named after the ‘PULL UUUUP’ ragga sample that is used and chopped with an amen. Doesn’t sound like techno so far, does it?! Well, it is me making the music so nothing is straight forward.
Retreat: This is the last track from the album. I released it under ‘Fyerhammer’ on my own label, ‘Fire Hammer’, a few years ago. I thought this remaster would tie up the album quite well as a closing track. It swells and lushes out quite a bit and is full of warmth. It was really enjoyable to write. A complete opposite of what people are used to from me really.
You can purchase the album on CD or digital download HERE.
Technoist is now taking bookings to tour this album. Click the button below for all enquiries.