Carl Cox: "EDM has played a massive part in the techno resurgence"

Legendary artist Carl Cox has enjoyed a career spanning nearly three decades and his knowledge of the evolution of dance music culture is unparalleled. Now in a recent interview he's elaborated on the current boom of techno, which he says can be partially credited to EDM's popularity.

Speaking to The Independent, Cox was discussing his opinions about the many changes happening to the Ibiza club scene. Currently there's a strong presence of techno above all other styles. When asked about what is causing the techno explosion, Cox said it's partly due to EDM:

"I think to be honest EDM has played a massive part in the techno resurgence. EDM has a massive energy in it, massive breakdowns. But if you think about it in the past five years, if you went to go see any EDM DJ most of the DJs played the same style or the same type of thing, or even the same tracks. I think people wanted to go to this kind of event, but they couldn’t bear to hear the same track over and over, the same way, by the same DJs anymore."

While EDM has enjoyed its time in the spotlight, Cox says perhaps now listeners and ravers want something a bit different. Instead of big drops, punters are after sets that build and progress in a new way, like techno:

"See techno takes you somewhere else; it’s a similar experience, but the audience is being taken on a developmental journey, they want to discover new sounds. You don’t have to have the drops in the records, you don’t need to have the vocals in it, you don’t have to have the fireworks and all this paraphernalia – its all us because you’re into the music. So people who experienced EDM, loved it, but after five years you’ve had enough, this is what has pushed the techno stages at festivals."

Cox goes on to describe how EDM's mega stages and arenas are not necessary anymore. He also touches on how techno sets are more appealing because they are longer, whereas EDM sets usually dont span longer than an hour and a half. Expanding on his opinions about techno being a more atractive genre today, Cox reminisced about playing back to back with Adam Beyer at this year's Junction 2 in London:

"Now usually in London if you’re playing techno, you’ll get 200-300 people and that’s it. We had 15,000 people for a techno lineup, which is just an insane response, where before that would be numbers reserved for EDM so really there’s a massive shift: I mean a few days ago, an event in Ibiza David Guetta was playing tech-house! What’s going on here?"

Elsewhere in Carl Cox's interview with The Independent, the superstar DJ touches on his opinions about the changes in Ibiza and what it's like for him on the island after his legendary residency at Space Ibiza ended. Read more here.

For more, check out the best Carl Cox sets of all time and read about his advice for how to survive while on tour here. Watch Carl Cox back to back Adam Beyer at Junction 2 here

Harrison is Mixmag's East Coast Editor. Follow him on Twitter here