The Onslaught Of Anti-Intellectualism In Art

there was a sudden change in music in the 90s. mid 90s. i just had gotten into breakore, dark ambient, industrial hardcore. alien sounds, experimentalism, shrill FX. cold, mysterious, odd vibes. space sound.
then, it started to break down. generally, not unusual for a subculture. each has its time, i guess. but there was something that - caught my awareness. that made me worry.
suddenly, almost everyone i know, as an artist, as people involved, or as friends, abandoned the alien soundscapes of this music. to be exact, they went pop. and this did not only happen in breakcore, or dark ambient, but many other genres to.
80s were in, suddenly. cheesy 70s too. and so on.
i, back then, felt this was more than just a case of bad luck, of chance, or just another meaningless, "postmodern" phenomen. i felt i, we, were fighting a war, and we just had lost, and were now lone soldiers trapped in nowhereland. because the change was so total. so deep. in so many eras, at so many points at the same time. i back then felt that it was part of a larger problem. a larger danger.
and not until now, i realised the true extent of what happend.
it was the onslaught of anti-intellectualism in art.
techno, breakcore, hardcore, and related genres, to the mid 90s, was music for the head, on so many levels. first, directly, of course. it was music to feed your mind. to work on your intellect. to make your conciousness fly. to get into a headtrip. but it was also on a "productional" level intellectual, the way it was made. always full of ideas, experimentalism, bold new steps.
the 80s nostalgia and the rest, that replaced it, or merged with it in the mid 90s, was the opposite. simple melodies. simple lyrics. simple song structures. music that no longer dared your mind. that no longer induced deep, long, complex thoughts. but rather, that quenched these thoughts. vigorously.
and this is why people liked it. don't listen to some complicated acid hardcore structure by some freak somewhere. kick back with some abba song about love. hey it's got a simple tune, you could whistle it along. don't think too much. just relax and enjoy.
and this was part of the anti-intellectual turn of tides in almost all music fields.
the focus was now on everything simple. easy to digest. that doesn't upset you or makes you worry or wonder or ponder. melodies you already known a lot of times. themes that you heard thousand times before.
oh there are only the same four chords in most tracks? yes, but aren't they sweet sounding? doesn't strain your brain too much, eh? just relax. forget the intellectual.
even in the realm of "experimental electronica", this anti-intellectualism set in. genres like IDM were created, with the same mind-numbing, brain-killing major scale octave and perfect fifth based melodies over and over again. music for elevators.
so, as i said, these were not isolated phenomenas. the anti-intellectual swing was almost total - or was it actually total? almost everyone followed this notion suddenly. there was no real experimentation, no real intellectualising of music going on anymore. and people openly rejected the intellectual. yes, they were quite open about it. their "point" was, music that is abstract, for thinking, intellectual, is "boring". the focus should be on emotion, or maybe dancing - not on thinking. as if these were contradictional. you can dance till you sweat to some of the most intellectual music. and you can cry your heart out to honest emotions of intellectual music. fuck, i'd say you only can do this to true intellectual music. some of the classical, or modern, or non-modern composers come to mind. j.s. bach music isn't less sweet because his fugues are deeply mathematical and intellectual, or is it?
so, there was really an ideology, a cohesive movement, behind this anti-intellectual turn. repeated in magazines, blogs, reviews over and over again. always the focus on "simple tunes", simple structures. always the focus of emotion over intellect, of body over intellect. i shouldn't need to mention that "emotion", and "body" over intellect is one of the core motions of anti-intellectual ideology? one of its core concepts.
people were deeply, deeply afraid of intellectual music suddenly. they couldn't stand it. it scared them. they couldn't understand it. complex melodies, different song structures, amorphic music, music that broke the rules, the concepts, and got rid of them. it gave them the creeps. they clang so desperately to the traditional, boring, lifeless musical structures.
it should be noted, that the anti intellectualism in music, was not a standalone phenomena either. it tied in to a much larger, maybe much, much dangerous anti-intellectualism, that got viral and extreme somewhere towards the end of the 90s and the beginning of the 2000 years, in almost, or rather, in all areas of life.
so this, together, is part of a very dangerous, very worrying trend, that could become even more complete in the future.
but, it is no reason to give in to defeat. it is not something that has to be accepted. it should be fought, and it can be fought. in fact, a lot of us gave in to some sort of shock, became inactive, or gave in, in light of this happening. it is time we gather ourselves again, and stand up, and move on, and take a stand. a stand for the intellect, for the mind.
create intellectual music again. truly intellectual music. that at the same time, of course, can be deeply emotional, and having an impact on the body. truly complex, complicated, creative, daring, visionary, idealistic music. that breaks everyones rules, moves on from any concept. that questions all authority in music - and overcomes it.
it is time to take a stand. so let us do it.

Taking Techno Seriously

there was a time when, at least by "serious" people, anything that was not academic music, classical compositions were not taken seriously. surely, cheap fun for the plebs, but not comparable to any of the great maestros! you could enjoy them, but please don't analyse them.
this his changed a lot - extremely - in the last decades. the barriers between "serious" and "entertaining" music have been ripped down. by bands who combined both approaches, but also by public opinion. i still remember a time when everything "pop" has been sneered at by intellectuals. the experimental rock of the 70s might have been the first that got the blessing and the acknwoledgement that in such noisy, emotional, touching music could actually be a lot to analyse, to interpret, to ponder on. the next thing was that also pop albums have become the focus of serious attention. pop is no longer seen as purely entertainment music, but also having the ability to have serious musical merits - and cultural, philosophical too. even the dreaded eye of academic research now often looks at rock, pop, even hiphop, metal, punk records and culture. some of the later development was that disco and dance music got the "credibility card" and are taken serious now.
but there is one thing that is still overlooked. techno, rave, gabber, hardcore, of the 90s and later. this music, by the vast majority, is still seen as childish, immature - pure hedonistic trash to many. and to me, it was never like that. techno always felt mature and serious and deep and meaningful - being no lesser hedonistic and fun and ecstatic at the same time, mind you. so, my wish would be that slowly people would start to realise, that the same serious approach, the pondering and interpretation and worship, that is done to the famous rock and pop albums in the moment, could one day arrive at the important techno albums and EPs. that people realise that techno doesn't have to be cheaply produced music for dimwits.
and indeed, in techno, rave, hardtrance, some of the most complex and clever and intelligent production i encountered so far can be found. techno has so many philosophical, cultural, social, political connections; hints; ideas; thoughtsets (one idea of mine is that one of the reasons techno never had an outspoken political stance as such is that it was simply too complicated to express it in this way; and easier to express sonically). one can deep digger at techno, one can find so many things. there is plenty of stuff to activate ones mind on, to think about. this is the shame; that techno was not seen as the serious, deep music it is - until yet. i have a feeling this might change soon. but, also keep in mind, it is hedonistic and fun at the same time.

Past, Present, Future

progress is a concept by the status quo, and it is a complex concept, and one of the most powerful concepts, and being used as a form of oppression, and being used very effectively so. if society answers to a social or youth movement that the police might be called on them if they don't stop their ways - think of hippies, black panthers, punks and such, this in the past didn't phase them much. if society voiced what they do is "morally questionable", again, not very effect. but when society voices that their ideas, their politics are outdated, a thing of the past, "of the 70s", most people in western society suddenly give in and bow down to this tool of oppression. western people are more scared to be "outdated" or to "live in the past", then they are scared of a policeman's baton. the threat of calling the national guard might not push young or old rebels to give up - but the idea that they now have to "move on", "stop living in the past", "to grow up" makes them surrender in the thousands.
while progress and the idea that certain politics could be a thing of past decades has been used as a tool of oppression and social, crowd control for a while now, in our times, with all the technological advances and changes, it has become total - or even worse so. everyone is suddenly on a hunt to be up to date, to be modern in behavior, to "grow up", to not be stuck in past things. this has created the bizarre situation that "old folks" who grumpingly reject all that "modern crap", sneer for example at smartphones and social networks, are more radical and liberatory than all the young generations together suddenly. similiar, the dumb, middle-aged beerbelly guy who listens to the same music he done 20 years ago and doesn't care or know any modern music trends, is suddenly more of a radical than all these braindead dubstep, idm, bjork etc. listeners together.
keep in mind progress, the categorization into decades and such is just a concept and idea by the status quo. there is no "progress" as such, in the way they describe it. it's just an illusion.
now, i must say, there are actally pitfalls to "living in the past" - although it's still probably better to listen only to past music than to "modern" genres, at least in the current situation, i have the feeling it might change in the future, but that would be another topic. but, in true "strawman argumentation" style, there is also something connected to it, when people say this, which is not voiced directly first, but always implied. this is, that, if you not ought to live in the past - you should live in the present. listening to present day music, present fashion, going to present day clubs, having present opinions. and this is where the shit hits the fan. for you should never live in the *now*! never live in the present. for the present has always sucked. "present society" sucked in the 60s, has sucked in the 70s, 80s, and today. yes, maybe get rid of the ghosts of the pasts, and the past music and art and politics. but never join the present, do not listen to present day music. well, this obviously doesn't include art and music that is rejected or ignored by present day society or culture, as this art is not part of the present. but i mean contemporary, current trends in music, society, politics.
the idea of having to live in a certain time, period (the current time) is a very western, capitalist, authoritarian idea. live in any time you want! in the past - yes in the present too, maybe, if you wish - in the future - one year only read 12th century novels - another year only listen 60s music - and so on, and so on. if you don't to live in the past - live in the future. live in any time, live out of time - organize 18th century parties and play only 50s rock'n'roll to them. host a pirate theme party and play only acidhouse. and so on. the choice is yours!
but don't fall in the pitfall of "progress" and "getting away from the past". fight these concepts!

Should Music Have A Purpose?

music always had a purpose. basically, only in comtemporary western society, the belief exists, that music could be created solely and mainly for issues of pleasure, for entertainment, as a product to be consumed. music in ancient societies was deeply tied in to the societal, political, religious beliefs of that society. it was meant to honor the king and the "gods", and to spread good concepts and ideas, like social union or goodwill. in medieval times this was still the case, as the church and nobility steered the direction of music. even when europe eventually got rid of its "gods" - or rather, "the god", and the power of the church and aristocracy, around the 18th and 19th century, music, and art, was still seen as to be tied to higher ideals, principles, concepts - it was said that it should be created to spread good ideas, emotions, ideals, to educate the listener and reader, to evoke good emotions in him and, at best, convince him to do noble deeds and live a noble life himself. in fact that was the main criticism aimed at "scandalous" books or pieces at that time; that these "scandalous" artworks had the danger to instead invoke negative thoughts in a person, and could steer him in a dark direction instead of a good one (of course that criticism in most cases was wrong).
so, music was never made for the sake of music itself. it was always tied in in higher principles, higher ideals, conceptions. in the social, political structure, or the religious one. only current western society is "decadent" enough to think music ought just be made for "entertainment", to be consumed.
unlike people of the past, and other societies, western people have completely lost their connection to these higher ideals, purposes, goals in life. and their music, only logically, has lost its too. who still uses a substantially amount of energy, of his life, to fight and work for a good and noble cause? for a just, free, egalitarian society? everyone just wastes his time on petty and lesser causes, drugs, material gain, social standing, and such. who is still willing to fight for the good, and for the true?
so if you say music should be merely for "entertainment" - you are very political indeed, for this is a typical western way of thinking, and part of the "politics" of western capitalist society - to have music just as a consumer good, to numb the masses while capitalism creates more and more destruction in this world.
what is complicating issues a bit is that, in an attempt to leave the 20th century, subcultures often openly denounced the concept of music *having* to have a purpose - as i said, as this still was part of the modern idea of art in the 20th century, in a way of playing clever tactics, especially aimed at the older generations. punk and techno come to mind here. because they realised the way these older generations tried to shape the youth and *force* them onto a purpose, that might have been falsified by earlier generations already, was a trap too.
yet, one should not easily fall for this tactics. punks and technofreaks might have denounced the idea of purposeful music deliberately - but their music was still full of purpose. one thing is what people say, and the other thing is how things are. if this sounds paradox - be reminded this was a way of playing tactics, with outsiders, with the journalists, the "parent generation", not spilling the beans to those who can't understand.
so should music never be made for enjoyment, and only to fulfill a higher purpose, a higher goal, a higher idea?
i am inclined to say: yes, music should not be enjoyed if it is not following a higher concept, or goal. but that would be dead wrong too, and it would be completely missing the point.
because any enjoyment, and fulfillment, any pleasure, any celebration, music does gain by a higher purpose. the higher purpose, the idea behind a piece, a song, a track, is what makes it enjoyable - what makes it thrilling, what makes it exciting, wonderful, fantastic. forget the drums, forget the bassline, the vocals, the production - what only matters is the idea behind the piece. and if it's just wood being banged to a wall, or pieces of metal clanged against each other, if the idea is brilliant, the track is brilliant. this is the source of joy, of excitement, of the "fun" of music. what makes it possible to party, to celebrate music. only a higher purpose can make this possible.
if music loses it's connection to higher ideals, to societal, to political, to cultural ideals, to the wellbeing of society and of all humans, than the music loses all pleasure, all excitement too, and becomes dead, dull, empty, boring - as most music is already today - for this very reason.
you can see this in all these chic boring minimal techno and electrohouse parties, boring tracks for boring people, where the only reason people actually waste a lot of money on these clubnights is that they hunt for the last trace of the original anarchism and radicality that techno once posessed in its beginning stage.
so. be sure to not forgot the higher purpose and concept to music. people might have lost it - but that doesn't mean everyone has lost it, and that it could not be brought back, or kept alive.

The Mover - Alien Underground Interview

the infamous and famous interview of The Mover printed in the Praxis, South London-scene related "Alien Underground" magazine.
thanks to "Phuture" for putting it up originally.
enjoy!

Earth – Year 2017

The death of the undercover agents puts cops into dilemma since the murder has eliminated a chain of clues necessary to track down a syndicate that specialises in extreme terror. Charlie X is chosen by Inspector Rob to take up the mission and goes undercover by posing as a ‘’hot’’ gun dealer. Charlie X is introduced to Mover, the leader of the syndicate, and is put through various rigorous tests under surveillance, eventually being accepted into the gang. Attempting to break into the target workshop, MOVER and his gang are ambused by a strong police force. Being unaware of Charlie X’s identity the police shoot him spraying his abdomen and head with a thousand bullets. In the meantime MOVER and his gang succesfully blast their way out of COPTRAP filling a few brains with some hot steel. Welcome to wasteland – meet the MOVER!


AU: Is it true you are making a soundtrack for an expensive sci-fi adventure?
M: Maybe! We have to see how it comes out, I’m half way through that project now and if the production crew is happy with the end result they will use it. That’s all I can tell you.
AU: I presume it has been made in the USA?
M: Yes, but don’t haggle any more, otherwise you know too much!
AU: Do you thrive on anonymity?
M: Well you know I’m a machine, I’m wired up I don’t get good feedback of humans, and anyway, stargazing is for fuckers! I’m roaming the earth and it’s nice and doomy here. The sound of MOVER should speak for itself.
AU: Are you     with darkness?
M: That is something that is quite appealing to me, but not in the superficial way. If you feel it, you take it out on sound. If you have heavy dreams or stifling atmosphere in your environment, if cops are on your case, your head feels heavy and you are in the gutter, you get a feeling out of the experience. MOVER is dark because it’s set in the phuture of mankind. I can’t possibly justify seeing a happy end to this stupid human drama. Darkness is not mystical, it’s your everyday reality.
AU: You also construct as two other identities, ALIEN CHRIST and MESCALINUM UNITED, how do you relate to those?
M: ALIEN CHRIST is more an inspirational piece of music. It goes back to discovering “Art of Stalking”, one of my favorite records, and remixing it to and my head is still on it. My first encounter with that track was very emotional and it got my adrenalin rushing big time. It had ‘phuture’ written all over it and it was something I wanted to listen to after long hours in the studio. To this date I made around 80 remixes of this track and this year we’ll release an album with some new heavy sounds.
AU: Talking about albums MESCALINUM UNITED have one due soon, can you give us a few hints on what to expect?
M: Expect the unexpected! The picture here is getting darker. I made a set of ambient tracks, but to be precise, sick ambient, with Mescalinum sounds taking a new direction. No beats, deeper sound and very sick vibe to it. Imagine surveying earth after nuclear destruction and enjoying what you see, that’s how it feels when you listen to it. The other side is still quite menacing and brutal but I won’t sacrifice myself for style. It’s most important how I feel when I’m programming. It took me a very short time to come up with mesca sound, but it will take ages to improve on it and take it further. In that respect it’s a constant struggle, it’s the hardest project to work on.
AU: If we reflect on different styles of music being made in the past and the present, what would you say influenced you most?
M: Definitly black music, more than anything else. Rap, hip hop, early acid and Detroit style. We used to run a hip hop label in the early eighties, called DOPE ON PLASTIC, but Germany is the last place to make this stuff. You need to be black to make it work, I hate seeing rich little kids with BMW’s pretending they are homeboys. Anyway we stopped DOP, but some hip hop will be released on NO MERCY this year and we’ll see what happens!
AU: What about the European side, industrial, EBM, Kraftwerk etc.?
M: I like certain areas of European music, but I also hate most of it because you get pinned down in the cliche sooner or later. I understand a lot of people think we come from an industrial point of view, which is utter bollocks. Most of the industrial music is crap anyway, I hate it. As far as wankers like Kraftwerk or Can are concerned, I don’t think I really want to know their music. I liked early Belgian sound, Mackenzie, Boccacio raves and I’m trying to recreate some of that feel on COLD RUSH. I tried to look inside myself to find ways for music, and I don’t find it helpful to rely on the past too much, it’s pointless.
AU: I heard you are in love with jungle at the moment?
M: HA! HA! HA ! I’m hooked on it, it’s fucking great. Dark Jungle and heavy drum and bass, to me it sounds totally fresh again, and you don’t hear stuff like this made in Germany or Holland. British drum and bass is unique and is oviously growing again because of that commitment and enthusiasm around it. At the end of the day it’s the ideal party music, free form, uninhibited and very uplifting, something close to pure groove.
AU: Who are the producers / labels that you rate at the moment?
M: Italian music is quite fine, LORY D. is a step forward, Dutch music can be exciting, I like Neophyte and DJ Rob but these days it seems harder and harder to find quality euro hardcore. Most of the dutch music is taking a different direction, happy and midtempo style and a lot of it is very poor, you know it’s maybe better to say commercial. Dutch government is clamping down on big parties at the moment, and it’s not helping one inch, I also picked up on some British stuff, like Reload and Beaumont Hannant, Aphex and just recently I heard some unreleased material from Jason VFM, which we’ll hopefully release on PCP.
AU: What are your three all time favorite pieces of vinyl?
M: X-101 by Underground Resistance, Suburban Knight’s Art of Stalking, and Analogue Bubblebath by Aphex. All three of them are definitive, original, deep and looking forward. I would slot Final Sickness trilogy somewhere in that group. People involved were all looking for their own expression, their own sound and that is a serious contribution to music. If you play those tracks now, they still stand head and shoulders above most of the contemporary rubbish.
AU: Let’s get back to your own music. What are you working on at the moment and when can we expect a new Mover album?
M: PCP are going through a transitional period at the moment, with a lot of new ideas and individuals coming into play, so I have to respect that. We are also starting a couple of new labels, Powerplant, Temple Tunes and Floorfiller are definitly worth a mention, and you can expect a lot more deep dark music from us. New Mover album is almost finished and is looking like a double right now. I’m trying to add finishing touches to it because production and mixing have to be 100% otherwise I don’t put it out. MOVER has got to be the best.
AU: Do you find it difficult to follow up the SICKNESS concept?
M: Ideally not, it was the way I felt at the time, and it concerns certain period of working out what MOVER should sound like. Most of SICKNESS stuff came in one big rush. For a comparison Waves of Life took considerably longer to complete. You have to take care of your feelings and moods at the time; sometimes I wake up and feel MOVER and work on it for hours on end. And that occurs not so often. New material is more controlled, light in some parts but still darker in pressure areas. It rolls on well from FINAL SICKNESS concept, because it opens a new door for me. I don’t want people to have any preconceptions about it either because it spoils the feeling. In the past two years I made over 100 Mover tracks and only 8 are making it on this album, so judge for yourself.
AU: Can you say confidently, you are on the way to another Mover classic?
M: At this point, yes. It wil sound more contemporary than my previous outings and I think that will make it more accessible for a wider audience. So far we’ve had a problem communicating certain ideas and pointing them in the right direction and that left us wondering in rage. Germany itself was hostile to the MOVER concept whilst we got brilliant response from Britain, the States and Italy.
AU: How do you explain that?
M: Britain is cool because the priorities are considered heavily. People are quite seriously into it, regardless of their social status. You get music and dope in a right kind of way. Everybody is into their records and decks and sits down and spends time with it, it’s more of a lifestyle. You are hungry but that record is still spinning. Germany is more of a consumate society supermarket style. CD’s are winning over vinyl and if it’s not on MTV you don’t bother. Music is a fuckin’ commodity, and I don’t see it that way. Music demands involvement and reaction be it in a club or at home. There is no point in going and raving to Gabba if next thing you do in the morning is stick Kylie Minogue in your new flash CD player. Fuck that!
AU: Do you find the make up of post war German society distressing?
M: Totally! Germans are still quite a way from understanding the soul in music. Forget about techno, there’s plenty of it around. What we need is some heart and soul.
AU: Can you tell me more about the PROGRAM 1 comeback?
M: The guys have just arrived from Colombia with a big suitcase and more news from Lil Pepe and T-bone who is seriously ill in hospital in Bogota. Tomorrow we go and finish off our next 12” and make it 15” and hopefully we’re down to some serious business. Just wait for those Program 1 basslines and you won’t be disappointed. This time we’ve used bigger bullets.
AU: Is T-Bone on his death bed?
M: Not as yet! I heard it’s a milder case of some strange South African veneral disease. The problem with T-Bone is he goes poking around his thing too much and he gets punished for it. You can’t make records like that!
AU: Where do you see Planet Core in the year 2000?
M: Bigger, better, bolder, faster and smarter! I want to move to a different location, I’m not happy with living in a city. Frankfurt is OK but quite frankly I wouldn’t mind moving my studio to Barbados or Majorca. At the moment we are going to stay hardcore, make some more dark stuff and get more people involved with our new record labels. ZEKT have a few releases lined up on Powerplant. Ilsa Gold on Cold Rush, we’re doing some stuff with guys from Rotterdam, and hopefully we’ll make a PA appearance at one of the VFM parties in London.
AU: OK, then > see you there!
M: SEE YA!

The Hardcore Backlash

techno in the beginning was dirty. fucked up. dark. a thousand messed out ravers getting wild in the basements, bunkers, warehouses, fields.
it was a big "fuck you" to the dance music of the 80s and 70s. to the luxurious disco of the 70s, or chic "dance" pop tunes of the 80s. where those with the most expensive suits and fashion dominated. where you would not go mental on the dancefloor, but repeat the dancesteps john travolta showed you on TV. where the was a "well behavedness" to the dance activity - not go all out insane and twirl your body around.
the techno crowds largely fit to this. to the anarchy and mayhem, and uprising from below. freaks, anarchists, squatters, working class people, lower classes. the outsiders, the jobless, those who were different, but still hopeful.
there was a huge backlash against this techno and hardcore momentum by the mid 90s. it was decided, techno had to become "chic". be respectable, well-behaved too. "intelligent" techno was pushed in forefront, "elegant" house and dance beats.
the working class and nihilistic roots were forgotten too. now the "luxurious" dorks discovered techno for themselves too, fine, chic, party people, intensively boring, and the middle class, mediocre men and women, intensively boring too. all those who sneered at the dirt and mayhem of techno - and especially at the ravers, the crowds, the hardcore possee - before.
was techno at the beginning a form of class warfare? it is hard to say. but by the mid 90s it had become one, waged by people from the upper and middle classes, to take techno away from the working and outcast classes they despised. and this war was waged quite directly; for example, now they were bouncers who often guarded the clubs and didn't let you in if you not looked like money or at least pretended too.
it is now history, so we have to recall the debates, the emotions, and motions of all these people who despised the former "childishness", "ridiculous" of anarchist techno, of rave, of hardcore - and now demanded chic and conformistic - and utterly boring - "electronic" music. this can still be seen of how many of these, or other people, still think in the same patterns when it cames to early techno and hardcore music. 'how dumb that music was', 'how silly those people looked and danced who loved this music'. as if you wouldn't look ten times as silly with your chic outfit at the minimal techno night, you asshole.
yes, this is history. so, it's time to turn the tide. blast them away. blow the lid off. bring the dirt back to techno music, to hardcore. make it the music of the lower classes - and the freaks - again. we need a different form of techno and hardcore again - full of rebellion, uprising, anarchism. full of nihilism and energy and activity.

The Specialness Of Early Techno

when i started producing music, the early techno and hardcore productions were despised by many people of the newer generation of producers. was the sound not cheesy? weak? technically inferior?
i too had such a mindset, and was at first not much interested in this sound. after all, i had lived through the first "techno explosion" and even then it did not catch much of my interest.
over the years, this changed. i felt a certain attraction to the earliest techno and hardcore productions. there seemed to be something intriguing, special about it. i felt i was about to grow an obsession for this music. a lot of my friends were shocked. why was i going back in the past when seemingly others moved on?
it took me a while - years - to be finally to realise what is so special about early techno.

the cheesy stabs, the dancy vocals in a lot of those tracks put many people down - especially those who come from the rock field. isn't this cheesy dance music? for the last remaining candy ravers?
the point is. no it's not. the earliest techno, at the end of the 80s, and the beginning of the 90s, was simply made, produced in a different way, than most other music at that point, and later. it's all about the effect. the melody, the sound, the samples, in itself are not so important, if they don't reach a certain effect. to get wild on the dancefloor. to trip out. to move. to groove. to drift off. and, most importantly, to feel that energy rush. yes, some melodies might be cheesy, but this is missing the point completely. if the melody can make you rush to the adrenaline, then the effect was succesful, and wether this was done by cheesy methods is not so important at all. this is what makes early techno different from pop music or most other forms of music.
the various elements, structures, the keys, melodies, tunings, harmonics, rhythms, are only secondary. the tunes are made with the effect, the impact they can have, in mind. the impact on the body, and mental.
you have to see through the apparent sounds to realise this.
this also why techno producers easily switched elements over the years, from the 808 to sampled drums to breakbeats and more.
if it makes you dance, it is correct. don't question anything else.

the interesting thing here, is, again, that this is something that is not found in most other genres. it *can* be found; jazz, blues, 60s rock, had a similiar approach. where the elements and structure used is not so important as the effect induced by the music. and, in the last years, i see that this approach is also heavily speeding into other forms of music, even pop.

the other thing, techno, hardcore, the early stuff, is simply some of the best produced music ever. what makes it special, to write it down, could fill a whole book. it is not so much the complexity - early techno was often simplistic - as how they used the limitations of the early equipment, and of the techno method itself. and what they stuffed into the tracks, as ideas, creativity, vision. techno tracks feels so much as a whole, and packed with action. also, they have a quality what i call "seamless" producing. in the best tunes, every basshit, every drum, every stab just fits absolutely perfect and you can find no flaw in the production. again, this is rare in most genres, and again, compares with equally seamless music as the best jazz or blues productions.
i will stop here for now; it is too much to explain and maybe can't be explained. if you are a producer yourself or interested in techno, just listen to the early techno productions over and over, and maybe you can find the genius in these tracks and their productions.

these two things are what make early techno and hardcore stand out, and a lot more. maybe you can find enjoyment in these genres too.