Take the relentless, looping energy of techno, bolt it to the rhythms and tempo of drum & bass, and you are in technoid territory. The term covers a fusion of techno and drum & bass elements, and the clearest first-hand definition comes from the German producer Current Value, who describes it as a style that emerged in the mid-to-late 2000s. It gets listed in the same drum & bass family as neurofunk, techstep, drumfunk and drill 'n' bass.
Cold steel, moving parts
Current Value says the sound combines the relentless, looping energy of techno with the complex rhythms and tempo of drum & bass, and that the result "feels both mechanical and organic". His Redshift 7 EP builds on this with half-bar loops and hypnotic structures that leave space for intricate layering. The technoid sound, he says, captures what he wants to explore under his CV moniker: "cold, precise, and forward-thinking".
His duo MachineCode, formed with Dean Rodell, is rooted in raw, industrial techno and leftfield drum & bass, built through live studio takes, outboard effects and feedback paths. Rodell says the duo's visuals are inspired by 1970s sci-fi aesthetics.
The 2016 album Biocellulose is where you hear the palette: "Pneumatics" runs steel-pan hits, chopped beats and buzzing techno details through the mix.
The harder, techier end of the dancefloor
Renegade Hardware pushed the harder, techier end of drum & bass, and pushed it hard. Founders Clayton Hines and Mark Hill kicked off Trouble On Vinyl in 1993 and, about two years in, clocked a harder, techier sound that needed its own imprint. The label built a reputation for twisted tech step and sound design, and for sessions at London's The End. The core residents were Loxy, Ink, Raiden, Keaton and Hive. More than 100 records went out before the label and its events were shut down after 20 years.
Technical Itch is filed under technoid on this site. Mark Caro, who works as Technical Itch, and Darren Beale (Decoder) met in the mid-1990s, when Beale lived in Bristol and Caro in Birmingham. They began collaborating on singles, landed a deal with Moving Shadow, and after Caro moved to Bristol built a recording studio together. Beale said his partner's music was harder than his own. The pair ran Tech Itch Recordings and the Tech Itch studio. We also carry an interview with Technical Itch.
Techno heads turn to the break
Raiden came to drum & bass through DJ slots at techno nights in the UK, then set out to meld the timbres of techno with rolling breaks and bass lines. He debuted in 2002, and his first release, "Fallin", on Renegade Hardware, was voted number 18 in the best tune awards of 2002. His label Offkey was relaunched in 2021 under his curation, pairing brutal industrial sound design and field recordings with the energy of jungle, breakbeat and drum & bass.
Counterstrike, a South African collective, dropped the Wardance EP (MSXEP038) on Moving Shadow in 2005. "Merciless" starts with techno-influenced pads before opening into a metal, industrial and drum & bass fusion, and "Zaire" hints at the classic '96 tech-step era.
Current Value, MachineCode and MCR
Current Value (Tim Eliot) came up in the mid-'90s on Position Chrome, developing a style of drum & bass that was both hardcore and clinical. He has worked with European hard-scene names including Limewax, Counterstrike and Technical Itch. Support from Black Sun Empire and Noisia helped him break out, and Biocellulose, his tenth album and first for Critical Music, included collaborations with Phace and Mefjus. He lists skullstep and darkstep among his earlier work, and Blackout and Critical among the labels he has released on.
The CV moniker was created to explore a more experimental and technoid direction, with Redshift 7 released on the MachineCode Recordings (MCR) label. The duo's first releases together date to Subtrakt in 2009. MCR grew from a shared vision of Eliot and Rodell to house experimental and technoid drum & bass, and they say they have worked with artists including HYE TEK, AR8 and Cooh. They have also announced technoid-focused MCR nights in Europe, beginning at the Bunker Club in Sofia.
Who else is in the lab
Artists on this site tagged technoid include Current Value, Technical Itch, Limewax, Raiden and Counterstrike, along with DJ Hidden, Katharsys, The Panacea, Donny, SPL and C.A.2K. Limewax is pegged as one of the front runners of the new heavy drum & bass sound and the originator of skullstep.
Where it lives now
Current Value and MachineCode use the term explicitly, and they have built a label, MCR, and planned club nights around it. That is a flag planted in the ground.
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