It doesn’t quite sound like it, so if you ask me, it’s questionable to what extent it’s influenced by Detroit techno. The official narrative is that the word “techno” did not enter popular use until around 1988 when Techno! The New Sound of Detroit compilation was released. That might be true but that does not mean that European techno was influenced by it to a significant extent. Detroit techno is nothing more than either house a.k.a. disco in the post-disco era (Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson) or electro (Juan Atkins.) Interestingly, the compilation was initially planned to be released under the title “The House Sound of Detroit”. So they knew they were doing nothing new, but they decided to change it later on, probably for marketing reasons. Much easier to create new words than to create new music.
Colored Music - Heartbeat was released in 1981 and I think back then it was called New Wave or something like that. Nowadays, it would be called “progressive house”.
The Creative Technology Institute - Dancing Ghosts was released in 1984 (made by former Throbbing Gristle members) and back then it was simply called electro (I think). Nowadays, it would be called “trance”.
EBM? I know what Industrial is… not a fan, but there’s always one or two exceptions… in any genre.
Brit New Wave was completely different to the European version of the genre… we never quite got the appeal of you guys to Techno and other similar sounds, a little… sure, but an entire night of that? Nah!
The Euro Techno guys and the Brit Rave girls, and never did that twain ever meet… come party with us, they’d say… not to that, we replied.
Another unreleased one originally to be put on Gaucho, but never made it for whatever reason. Two other things I forgot to mention about the difficulty of recording this album. I’ll tell you only because you are genuinely interested. Becker finds his girl dead from heroin overdose in the apartment (in addition to being hit by the taxi), and both Becker and Fagen were stressed out over owing one more album to fulfill a contract. Everything was working against them.
Some time after this they broke for a decade. Becker moves to Hawaii to farm avocados and produce two solo albums (which aren’t incredibly good), while Fagen continues writing solo stuff.
But only time will tell if you got the bear, or the bear got u. youtu.be/wu8dMG0PB-4
This is just wrong on so many levels. Deacon Blues is wayyyy to deep for these two. Id’a directed em to Peg or Hey Nineteen… something much more manageable.
"Musically, it is a tonally sophisticated and structurally complex work that was praised on its release as the most ambitious track the duo had ever attempted. The song’s lyrics center around the interior monologue of a man who runs to the title character to escape the stresses of his life “up on the hill.” Fagen claimed that it was inspired by a relative of someone he knew, who had married a Korean woman named Aja. He has described the song as being about the “tranquility that can come of a quiet relationship with a beautiful woman.”
Donald Fagen – lead vocals, synthesizer, police whistle
Steve Gadd – drums
Victor Feldman – percussion, vibraphone
Chuck Rainey – bass guitar
Walter Becker, Denny Dias and Larry Carlton – guitars
Michael Omartian – piano
Joe Sample – electric piano
Wayne Shorter – tenor saxophone
Timothy B. Schmit – backing vocals