Techno for exercising (yes, really)
Cry for help. Bear with me.
I'm always looking out for music to listen to on the treadmill. Certain elements need to be in place for a perfect soundtrack to a run:
1. I have to love what I'm listening to. Sounds obvious, but it's no good just playing upbeat, fast stuff, like a dance station or something. The track needs to distract me from the hideous reality of what I'm doing.
2. The track also needs to be quite fast, but not faster than me.
3. There has to be a hook. A certain amount of repetition, a pleasing riff, seems to give me a bit of rhythm, and make the repetition of the run seem less draining.
The word 'riff' will have given a clue as to the kind of thing I tend to play - a lot of hard rock and metal. To take Led Zep, 'Immigrant Song' and 'Trampled Underfoot' are perfect - 'When the Levee Breaks' and 'Kashmir' are a bit too slow.
But I'm now after a bit of variety and want to find some electronic/techno stuff that will still satisfy my conditions. There should be lots to choose from - repetition, steady beat - but I don't know where to start.
One slight caveat is that vocal samples of divas going 'Woah' on techno records annoy the hell out of me. I would like purely instrumental recommendations, if any such records exist.
Closest recent thing I've come across is Japanese Popstars - love the album but even they stick in some irritating vocals.
Any ideas?
- More from Specs_Beard.
- Login or register to post comments
Sounds like a job for...
...Pet Shop Boys.
i think you might be right, Mr H
didn't David Walliams say that when he was swimming the Channel a few months back that he kept on humming (if you can whilst you swim, greased up to the McGubbins) songs by the Pets?
Mind you, I'd give 'Yesterday when I was mad' a skip, if it comes on...
Or...
Some classic dance music: Underworld.
The Propellerheads
Decksanddrumsandrockandroll.
Their so far one and only album released in 1998. Pillaged by lots of advertising campaigns since and still sounds stunning.
'History Repeating' with Shirley Bassey is on it.
Run run run
Not sure if they're technically techno, but I reckon these would work well:
"Toxygene" - The Orb
"Hey Boy Hey Girl" - Chemical Brothers
"Papua New Guinea" - Future Sound of London
"Ruffneck" - Freestylers
Try "Mirrored" by Battles
the drumming could keep you on that treadmill indefinitely (incidentally, you should NEVER try and drive with it playing, you'll quite likely end up in Thurso)
What if
you started in Thurso? Or were heading there?
You'd best avoid the A9.
Battles
The track Atlas is the one. I actually experimented with this, playing it on repeat as I walked to work. It turned a casual 25-minute stroll into a 22-minute workout.
A few tech-house starters
All these get taken out regularly for an outing on my iPod. Have a mosey around Hype Machine and YouTube for some of them and get back to me with any specific likes/dislikes and I'll try to put something a bit more specific together.
Tiger Stripes
Booka Shade / M.A.N.D.Y.
Sebastien Leger
Gui Boratto
Jimpster
Nic Fanciulli
Adam K & Soha
Anja Schneider
Terry Lee Brown
The Timewriter
Jeff Bennett
Chymera
Jim Rivers
Julien Jabre
Saeed Younan
Plus, at the slightly darker, more minimal/experimental end of the genre (although still with a solid four-to-the-floor beat at around the 125-130 bpm mark):
Âme
Carl Craig
Dubfire
Marc Romboy & Stephan Bodzin
Patrick Chardronnay
Gabriel Ananda
Gregor Thresher
All the above are instrumental, by the way. It's a guaranteed diva-free zone.
Happy hunting. Oh, and you'll need to start practising saying "Chooooon" to yourself too. Dead important, that.
Not techno but
Virtually anything by The Strokes or Rancid works for me. It's funny how a slow track can sap the energy from you, even if it's a great song. The more variety in your playlist the better as it stops you from getting bored.
Some (reasonably varied) tracks that work for me:
Juxtaposed With You - SFA
Babies - Pulp
Tail Dragger - Red Devils
If I Can't Change Your Mind - Sugar
Rapsberry Swirl - Tori Amos
Getting It - The Wildhearts
This Charming Man - The Smiths
Obviously 5 Believers - Bob Dylan
Just a bit of Techno
My treadmill playlists often have;
a bit of Zep
Arcade Fire ("Keep The Car Running" "No Cars Go" "Power Out" "Rebellion")
Radiohead "Jigsaw Falling Into Place"
Manu Chao "Rainin In Paradize"
Midlake "Head Home"
but always
LCD Soundsystem "Northern Scum Onanistic" from 45.33.
and any/all of
Secret Machines "Sad and Lonely","First Wave","Nowhere Again","Lightning Blue Eyes","Faded Lines". The hours will zoom by.
Ideas
The Pump Panel "Reconstruction" (!) of New Order's Confusion works for me. The boys do shout "Confusion" quite a bit and there are some vocoder-ed words, but they're not exactly lyrics. Whatever: it'll have you running like a bastard! Armand Van Helden's mix of Bizarre Love Triangle is good too, but there's more singing on there.
Also, Born Slippy (Nuxx) by Underworld is great to run to; but again there's singing on there.
Death From Above 1979's You're A Woman I'm A Machine album is FANTASTIC to run to, but it's definitely not techno!
Finally, didn't LCD Soundsystem release a track called 45'33" specifically designed for running to*? Never heard it and have no idea whether it's "techno" but surely worth a listen?
_____________________________
* Judging from Churnster's post above he must have!
Like a rubber ball...
After several years, these keep coming back onto my Ipod when I fancy music while running. They are electronic/techno and
vocal-lite/instrumental and good for repetitive movement.
Narayana - The Prodigy
Photographic (Rex the Dog remix) - Depeche Mode
In yer face - 808 State
Autobahn - Kraftwerk
TransEurope Express LP (side 2)- Kraftwerk
Many of the kraut rockers would be good
Especially Neu - that motorik beat is perfect for this sort of thing, Harmonia, Kraftwerk - also good. Lemon Jelly - again got the constant beat thing going.
Down To The Bone
This is something I'm quite partial to when cleaning the house. It's nice and perky, sort of in the acid-housey/Roy Ayersy area, and the instrumentation is largely non-electronic. (Not sure if it'd be fast/punchy enough for a sweat-yer-ya-yas-off workout, though.)
Anyway, the beat kicks in at about 1:10:
All the tracks on their first three albums, Urban Grooves vol. 1 and 2, and From Manhattan to Staten are in this style.
Thanks, everyone!
Just wanted to say thank you to all of you for posting so much stuff - it'll take me weeks to investigate this lot.
Particularly your list, Archie - appreciate the wealth of information there. So far I can report one purchase (Booka Shade's 'Movements') and another standout for me was Chymera (looks like I'll have to download some of that). Still working through the line-up ...
Battles, too - reduced in HMV, but will be worth so much more in shed calories.
Popstars Redux
I've enjoyed reading all these suggests.
Whether exercising or not - I still like The Japanese Popstars. Here's a workout video for the rubber suit monster in us all... Face Melter.