For that, my dear friend, you need to dig deeper. And to also take a stab at the things, the invisible strings, that connect each genre, that act as transmats, from one style of sound to the other, from one destination to another. from one decade to another.
"techno", according to some of its fan-based "historians", is a monolith structure; and, depending on who you ask either entirely invented, designed, created within detroit, berlin, or off-shore, amongst the balearic tourist-traps.
Nightmoves - Transdance (New York City Mix) (1981)
But in truth, techno, and its subgenres, acid, trance, hardcore, gabber, never were monolith structures. not one, pre-defined, closed-off genre. these styles have cracks, tunnels, splits. they were liminal, at the crossroads. broken down at the seams, liquid, fluid.
not a fixed sign (maybe not even a watery one), not one location. more like a journey, a trip, a life time (and yes, it is a trip).
Hashim -We're Rocking the Planet (1984)
especially the internet has been haunted by a double fold dispute in past decades. two (or four) of these monolith tribes going against each other.
in the case of techno, the "techno comes from detroit" tribe against the european one, and in the case of gabber, the rotterdam hooligans agains the frankfurt "soccer" maniacs (or, spoken less poetically: did PCP invent everything, or was it the rotterdam labels?).
But let's not fuggetabout the big apple. Couldn't New York City put them all in one basket?
Frankie Bones - Call it Techno (1989)
Well, no, this claim would not be entirely right (or fair) either. Let's say it was co-evolution and pan-continental synchronicity.
Now let's get to the point, or the core; and become a little worm that chews a deeps tunnel into this big apple.
There is a line that had been repeatedly said by Lenny Dee, the American Godfather of Hardcore Techno, about the music of another Godfather of Gabber, Marc Acardipane from Frankfurt, Germany (now residing in Hamburg).
That, when he heard tracks like "Mescalinum United" for the first time, he finally founds someone (i.e. Acardipane) who produced tracks and put them on vinyl, that to him (Lenny Dee) did sound like the stuff *they already* created when playing live or during DJ sets (in New York).
Now, I guess you need to be a raver at hard to really understand the above passage, and have experienced the sound transformation of hearing a record being dropped in a strobe and smoke filled basements, and zig thousand watts on the speaker systems.
A mid 80s "dance" record from new york, that might sound "wimpy" with its bass and everything, when listened to at home, in the current day, on one's computer or phone, could sound really, really hardcore, when dropped in the abovementioned scenario.
Joey Beltrasm - Mentasm (1991)
and, more importantly, tracks become more hardcore depending on the tracks you mix them with during a set.
there is also a similar statement by new york dj legend frankie bones; that in the few years before the real advent of "techno" as a name, new york djs already played tunes that were technically the same as techno - they just sounded a bit different.
DX13 - Mother Lover New York (1993)
so, let's get back to the beginning. by the late 70s and early 80s, and maybe even earlier, New York had a very alive scene of clubs, club kids, discotheques. And these places played records from all over the map, that would now considered to be "no wave", "goth", "ebm", "industrial", maybe even hip house and electro funk...
but there is something that stood out with new york, and it is that they always had DJs and nights that selected the more, or most "hardcore" of these records, of these genres, and stitched them together in a mix. the most futuristic, the most minimalist, the most dance-driven, electronic ones.
Lenny Dee - Hostile (Brooklyn Mix)
of course not every dj, every night.
but there was a scene for this. and these were the bare bones already, of genres that would later get terms slapped on top of them, like "techno", "acid", "gabber"...
if we look at the new york club scene from the late 70s to the early 90s, there is indeed a strain visible (or audible) that is becoming more "technoid" each year, and more "hardcore", too.
and, at least by the 90s, this strain finally got put on vinyl too, and spread all over the world, too!
here is a mix that shows the transition of new york club sounds, beginning with ebm / goth / industrial tunes in the 80s, and slowly transition to techno and acid, and finally hardcore. with tracks that are directly, or indirectly related to the new york city scene. (which was broadcasted on a new york city based online radio).
tracklist:
1. Wargames - Defcon One scene
2. Amnesia - Hysteria
3. Micro Chip League - New York
4. Frankie Bones - We call it Techno
5. Interactive - The Techno Wave
6. Space Trax - Atomic Playboy
7. Komakino - Drill
8. Turbulence - Whurlstorm (Remix)
9. Sub System - J'ai Peur
10. Disintegrator - Locked on Target
11. English Muffin - Follow the Leader
12. Disintegrator - In the sun
13. Wavelan - Cygnal
14. Glitch - Heavy Mental
15. Gringo - Executed by the FBI
16. Signs ov Chaos - Killout A2
17. Signs ov Chaos - Killout B