Out to Lunch

The fuse in Brussels is turning 13 this weekend. The club started way back in 1994. I don’t know where the name came from but it’s not by accident that in those days Richie Hawtin was working under the alias of F.U.S.E. Even before all of this was happening, I was interested in electronic body music, Cabaret Voltaire and Electro. It wasn’t my main interest so I gradually lost contact with it but one of the records that got me going again and solidified my interest in electronic dance music was WARP release 12. Dimension Intrusion from 1993 by F.U.S.E. as part of the Artificial intelligence series.

By the early 90’s you all of a sudden had lots of people making techno, in Belgium and in Sheffield instead of just those three guys in Detroit. There was a relentless demand for new dance music but the Detroit innovators couldn't take it to the next stage. Other had to fill in. Kids in the UK, Canada and Europe started learning how to make those techno records. They weren't as well-made, but they had the same energy.
Especially in a country like Belgium where all the influences were available and record labels as R&S flourished. There was new beat and Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle were very big in Belgium. Detroit techno and acid house came in and everything got mixed up together.
Beltram cuts like Energy Flash and Sub-Bass Experience pointed the way forward to other R&S releases like Aphex Twin's Analogue Bubblebath, which spun techno off into yet another direction. The WARP material in Sheffield was less brutal than the Belgian techno: still using crunch industrial sounds, but more minimal, more playful.

And then another change occurred as techno went hardcore. I didn't like that phase. It was too simplistic, crude and aggressive. At that time in England and on the continent, one wing of techno was going toward ambience and the other towards popular working class fashion of hardcore. A very aggressive period. Most techno records were made for a fucked-up dance floor. no vibe, no motivation just aggression. The drugs had taken over.

Gradually there was also another category, where people were making music for you to pay attention to with your full mind, and we're trying to make something now that would last. WARP came up with the Artificial Intelligence series and a concept: Electronic music for the mind created by trans-global electronic innovators who prove music is the one true universal language. Coincidental to the Artificial Intelligence compilations, R&S released their In Order to Dance series. Together they trashed the boundaries between acid, techno, ambient, and psychedelic.
The original Detroit techno was very sophisticated. What they we're putting out around the early and mid 90’s had a similar level of sophistication. This is were Richie Hawtin and The fuse came in. The fuse started off as a heaven for high quality techno music. One of my first gig at the fuse was Black Dog productions right at the very beginning. They brought the best and most innovative DJ’s on the scene and developed into a place for house lovers with a unique mix of techno, minimal and house.
So together with my own birthday… happy birthday fuse!

F.U.S.E. - New Day
F.U.S.E. - F.U.
F.U.S.E. - Dimension Intrusion
F.U.S.E. - Uva
F.U.S.E. - Mantrax