I Wanna Be A Hippy ? Remember how the purists and the trendy media laughed in derision at Technohead s populist hardcore track? How strange, then, that many of the same people who were quick to sneer then are currently down with the unifying call of happy hardcore. For Michael Wells, now the sole member of Technohead, all of this media to-ing and fro-ing is irrelevant.
Wells has been involved in dance music since the beginning, under a number of different guises and pseudonyms. As Tricky Disco he bleeped his way into the Top 40, produced huge rave anthems as John & Julie and GTO, went all darkly ambient last year as Signs Ov Chaos, and, Technohead aside, is currently recording minimal techno for the Swedish label Pitch Control.
Carl Cox is using one of my minimal tracks for his next FACT compilation, but I don t feel part of any scene. For example, I like to make hard, fast music, but I wouldn t say that I m a part of the gabba or happy hardcore scene. They are movements that pigeonhole music, and I believe that you have more longevity if you aren t bracketed. In my music I work under a lot of different names and always try and be as original as possible.
Surely releasing Hippy didn t help Technohead to rid themselves of happy hardcore s often cartoonish image?
After Hippy it was really difficult for me to make other stuff as Technohead. I didn t want to be seen as some kind of performing clown, churning out the hits.
However, the main reason it took a while to produce more Technohead music was the untimely death last year of Lee Newman, Wells partner and collaborator. As anyone who produces knows, working in a studio in isolation can be a daunting task: It is still difficult, because I work totally on my own: I have no managers, no-one looking over my shoulder saying what is good and what isn t, and I just have to trust my instincts.
Although Technohead are back with Technohead 4 , Lee Newman s legacy still lives on. Wells recorded Frankenscience under the name of Signs Ov Chaos shortly after her death, and it remains his most interesting work to date.
It was made soon after Lee died, and was a way of exorcising many of my feelings. Frankenscience was deep, dark and scary even if you use a computer to make music your moods will affect whatever you are working on.
Claiming that his fans are people who find it a nightmare to go to clubs , Wells continues to push electronic music to the boundaries of extremism and atonality, with little concern for hype, trends or flavours-of-the-month. A true maverick in an often conformist field, Wells is as essential to dance music as a private jet full of celebrity DJs.
Just don t mention that Smurfs cover version. n