Carl Cox: ‘Techno should scare the sh*t out of you’

Carl Cox has opened up about the current state of techno in a new interview.

Speaking about how the term is often misused recently, Cox told DJ Mag, “Everybody is banding the word techno around now. Many years ago, friends of friends would talk about my sets and say they wouldn't come and see me because I play techno. Now they say they do want to come and see me because I play techno.

“People used to be scared of my techno and now they're not. They should be. I play some of the most nasty, raucous sounds. If you listen to my set at Ultra, there were tracks that brought you in with strings and then others were just drum tracks that scared the sh*t out of you. That for me is techno.”

Elaborating on what techno means to him personally, Cox told DJ Mag, “My techno was always edgy, dark, scary and tough. And it still is. It always borders on the ideal of the true sound of techno coming from Detroit. Detroit and the sounds around my music are what I believe techno is. None of the fluffiness of what techno is perceived to be nowadays.

“If you can handle it, you'll have an experience, but it's a misused term at the moment for sure. It's just a word that's been banded around now in terms of acceptance and that's one of the difficult things about the sound.”

You can listen to Cox’s Ultra Miami performance here. The British legend also shared his first d&b mix in almost seven years last month (March).

Rob McCallum is DJ Mag’s deputy digital editor. Follow him on Twitter here.