- “Techno and house create a subtly different form of heightened immediacy to African music – a sort of future-now. (This is an effect of the music’s reliance on the vamp – originally a brief introductory passage repeated several times before a solo or verse in order to whip up anticipation, but in techno sometimes making up the whole body of the track.) Timbre-saturated, repetitive but tilted always to the next now, techno is an immediacy-machine, stretching time into a continuous present. Which is where the drug/technology interface comes into play.” [from Simon Reynolds’ “Energy Flash - A Journey through Rave Music And Dance Culture”]
Today, we want to delve deeper into this sonic legacy and its origins. While various sources like Wikipedia, RYM, or nearly any article on this style agree on its fingerprint (Techno with in-your-face hoover and stab sounds with an apocalyptic and noisy vibe), one recurring trope often goes overlooked. This is the characteristic "Rave Vamp-Riff" which gives shape to these sounds, commonly attributed to the hit What Time Is Love? by The KLF and later codified in tracks like “Rave the Rhythm” by Channel X or the Mortal Kombat Theme.
Channel X - Rave the Rhythm (1991):
This pattern consists of a riff made up of stabs or syncopated staccato sounds, with the following pattern (or similar) within a four-beat measure:
Try it out in your DAW, or if you have a good sense of rhythm, simply mark the beat and clap along. The pattern is unmistakable, and as you'll recognize, it's almost omnipresent in that era of Rave, whether in its exact form or with slight variations.
This leads us to the inevitable question: where does this pattern come from? and why did it stick? A normal person might just enjoy the music without overanalyzing it, but since we're music nerds here, we’ll dive into this investigation to uncover the roots of the “Rave Vamp-Riff”.
Back to the 70s
Going back to the 1970s, one can find iconic pieces of music in popular culture that resemble this Rave Riff. A first candidate to consider is the legendary Mission: Impossible theme. While it is written in a 5/4 time signature, when adapted to a 4/4 pattern, it shares many similarities with the Rave Riff.
First and foremost, it consists of orchestral stabs. Secondly, its rhythmic pattern can be represented as X--X--X-X--X--X-, where X represents a stab and - a sixteenth-note rest—closely aligning with the pattern we’re analyzing. And of course, its sonic character conveys a sense of anticipation and urgency, connecting the Mission: Impossible soundtrack to the unresolved tension that defines the Rave experience.
Mission Imposible Theme (1967): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGSUjuSBt1A
Beyond the important connections found in the previous example, the most frequently mentioned reference is the “Overture” of the 1971 rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. This attribution is likely due to the use of this sample in the classic 1991 track James Brown Is Still Alive by Holy Noise.
When listening closely to the second part of the overture, it shares the same characteristics: a syncopated pattern that builds anticipation but ultimately offers endless repetition, making this rhythm an essential part of the main riff and groove. In this case, the guitar plays a more prominent role in the pattern while still maintaining orchestral elements.
Jesus Christ Superstar - Overture (1973):
Regardless of the historiographical and musicological differences one might consider, there is an undeniable common thread connecting Mission: Impossible and Jesus Christ Superstar to the use of these sonic patterns in the Rave era: the transformation of what was traditionally a vamp into a riff. But what does this mean?
A vamp refers to a repetitive passage that builds anticipation before a song or section fully begins (for example, before the vocalist enters). In contrast, a riff in modern music is a recurring motif or figure that is consistently repeated throughout a track, becoming its backbone. In this sense, both in these 1970s pieces and in Techno, House, and Rave music, what was originally conceived as a transitional filler between sections becomes the track’s mainframe. This is quite radical considering traditional musical canons.
Moving into electronic music territory during the late 70s, it's essential to mention tracks like I Feel Love by Donna Summer, composed by Giorgio Moroder. While its main sequence isn’t as overtly similar to the previous two examples—due to its more ambiguous balance between syncopation and a snapped-to-grid structure—it still presents a case where the song’s central motif is a vamp with an anticipatory effect that never resolves, ultimately functioning as the track’s main riff. A similar case can be made for tracks like Ashra’s “Club Cannibal” or Jean Michel Jarre’s “Oxygen”, where this vampy pattern fill the whole song structure and floods it with a sense of foreboding.
Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygen pt4 (1976): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSIMVnPA994
Donna Summer - I Feel Love (1977): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZqqvrWCs3Q
Ashra - Club Cannibal (1979): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDYqrlWnTnM
On to the 80s
Well, we've talked about the 1970s and the 1990s, but what happened in between? The 1980s was the period when the foundations of rave music, as we know it today, were formed. The United States gave birth to Electro, House, Techno, Acid, and Breakbeat, while Europe developed parallel styles such as Italo Disco, Synthpop, EBM, New Beat and their native strands of Techno, which would later converge in the emerging rave scene during the second half of the '80s.
Several popular tracks start to show this repetitive patterns with a sense of unresolved expectations, like New Order’s “Temptation”, which has a funky riff quite similar to Jesus Christ Superstar Overture. Other iconic tracks consolidated this syncopated riff into electronic music. One such track, often credited with inspiring The KLF, is the EBM track Our Darkness by Anne Clark. The main melody/sequence of the track clearly resembles What Time Is Love?, predating it by four years. Its structure, however, is more regimented, bringing it closer to Giorgio Moroder’s Eurodisco sound and clearly to the native sound of EBM, and also echoes the rock-opera’s Overture.
New Order - Temptation (1982): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxDv_RTdLQo
Anne Clarke - Our Darkness (1984): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OguHIyNNblM
Across the Atlantic, the pillars of modern electronic music began to take shape. In the Chicago House scene, we have the case of Move Your Body by Marshall Jefferson, which clearly features this syncopated pattern with a piano vamp that repeats throughout the track as its main riff and motif. The emerging House sound would be defined by the use of these patterns, combining their syncopated and imminent character with the groovy rhythms that give it its sonic identity.
An important example that would push this element closer to what would later become the Rave sound is the classic anthem Strings of Life by Rhythm is Rhythm. Besides using a variation of this unresolved vamp that repeats indefinitely, it would popularize in the emerging Rave scene the use of sampled "stabs" from orchestral sounds. In a way, it laid the groundwork for what producers like T99 and Apotheosis would later develop in Belgium in 1991, with their hits Anasthasia and O Fortuna, respectively. The use of stabs can also be considered an outgrowth from synthpop stabs, such as Pet Shop Boys’ “It’s a Sin” or Sandra’s “Maria Magdalena”, or the very vamp-y Yello’s “The Race”, but one can make the case that Strings of Life made the bridge to the 90s in a pure techno format, track-like rather than song-like.
Marshall Jefferson - Move your Body (1986): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAR8cq5Bl94
Pet Shop Boys - Its a Sin (1987): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRHetRTOD1Q
Rhythm is Rhythm - Strings of Life (1987): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFQZndywOR4
Yello - The Race (1988): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4QbJRAWvRU
Returning to the course of our genealogy, and before the "Belgian Techno" boom took off, we have the track that most evidently set the template that would infect all subsequent Rave music. This is the anthem What Time is Love? by The KLF. The significance of this track lies in the fact that, unlike all the previously mentioned ones, it synthesizes the syncopated Rave pattern in a stylistically hybrid track, making its potential to move into all corners of Rave music more evident. Because, while this track is historically situated in the Acid House scene, it’s quite difficult to restrict it to a single style, going beyond the typical Acid template.
Clearly influenced by Anne Clarke’s EBM sound, it sounds both like New Beat and proto-Trance, while also reminiscent of Acid and Bleep. Its oriental sound, due to the use of the Phrygian scale, even makes it a candidate for the first Goa Trance track. From this intersection between the various paths of electronic music, it signals how this iconic riff has the potential to adapt to any style, explaining why Belgian Techno, the main heir to this template, would influence the entire sound of subsequent electronic music. The music video perfectly embodies the “liminal condition” of KLF’s hit, depicting the duo stranded at a perpetual crossroads in no man’s land.
The KLF - What Time is Love? (1988):
After the massive hit that was The KLF, more and more tracks began to emerge following this pattern, with the UK and Belgium being the epicenters of this trend. Tracks like Oochy Koochy by Baby Ford in the UK, or Acid Rock by Rhythm Device, began to push this pattern forward by emphasizing the use of stabs and buzzy synths. Interestingly, this signaled the imminent arrival of Rave and Hardcore in the early '90s in both countries. And most importantly, the huge Acid House hit, Stakker’s “Humanoid”, which codified this pattern even further.
This sound was so influential that even the more commercial New Beat acts would create their own version of it, like the hit Yo-Yo by Plaza. While it may annoy some due to its cheesiness, it undeniably bears the hallmark of this sonic shape, Phrygian scale included.
Stakker - Humanoid (1988): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DnfjMbu-Pg
Baby Ford - Oochy Koochy (1988): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T1HebBVIvY
Rhythm Device - Acid Rock (1989): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93vzwvRKbpg
Plaza - Yo-yo (1989): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQjHc5xfmSg
The raving 90s
The '80s were a period of sonic exploration and discovery, and the emergence and popularization of the "rave riff" was just one piece in this puzzle. By contrast, the '90s would become a period of sonic radicalization, especially in its early years. It is no coincidence that in 1990, almost simultaneously, Belgian Techno, Breakbeat Hardcore and Gabber/Hardcore emerged.
When it comes to the "rave riff" and its genealogy, it is during this period, first within the Belgian and UK scenes, where all the elements that had started to take shape in the '80s would converge and be accentuated during the peak of the Rave movement. The use of the syncopated rave riff as the central motif in thousands of tracks, the use of choral stabs and piercing sirens as timbres, and the exaggeration of this pattern creating increasingly convulsive and delirious variations became the hallmark. As Simon Reynolds notes, before the popularization of sawtooth kicks, it was the use of convulsive riffs that became the common denominator in what were then known as Rave or Hardcore styles (which were often considered part of the same movement in that period).
At this point, it's worth distinguishing between tracks that innovated primarily in timbre and intensity, while maintaining this pattern almost identical, and those that innovated more in sequencing, adding variety and complexity. In both cases, the Rave spirit is clear, aiming to convey a delirious experience rather than just a psychedelic one, but it's worth to differentiate them just for the sake of analysis.
In the first group, focusing on innovation in timbre, we have mainly Belgian Techno. This style would retain the typical 4/4 beats of late '80s Techno House and New Beat without many changes, except for the kick sticking out more in the mix. The sound pattern of the rave riff remained quite similar, but with exaggerated samples and/or synthesizers and a much more ferocious intensity compared to New Beat. But the mainframe inherited from Stakker’s Humanoid is almost intact in these cases, sometimes with an eastern vibe akin to 2 Unlimited’s “Twilight Zone” or the classic “Techno Syndrome (Mortal Kombat Theme)” by the Immortals. The introduction of the classic Hoover sound was also crucial in this process for injecting this pattern with rawer energy. Some good examples are the following:
Liaisons D. - Por La Patria ! (Brain-Fuck Mix) (1990): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrKAFwdPT9k
Outlander - Vamp (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=200tmiDdht0
Angel Ice - Je N'aime Que Toi (Hysteric-Rave-Mix) (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM4PUWFzvW8
Digital Boy - 1-2-3 Acid (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G64G0cj1vdc
In the second branch, where there was greater innovation in the pattern itself, we have examples like the classic “Anasthasia” by T99 and “O Fortuna” by Apotheosis. In these cases, the foundations for new uses of samples, especially orchestral and choral ones, were also laid. The use of breakbeats by T99 would also break with the previous trend, bridging Belgian Techno and Breakbeat Hardcore through the XL Recordings label in the UK. It would be through the adoption of these stabs, hoovers, and the rave riff by the British that an endless number of variations would explode, all while maintaining this unresolved sense of imminence, growing increasingly frantic and threatening. In this case, the mainframe from KLF and Stakker starts to break apart (pun intended), but to become a more radical version of itself, rather than departing from itself. Some good examples are the following:
T99 - Anasthasia (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx3LccRvidg
Apotheosis - O Fortuna (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drZXXWQ_2Iw
After Dark - Asylum (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBO1uHurU3s
The Prodigy - Pandemonium (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viCQXcb8grc
In summary, we have an explosion of this pattern that began in the 70s, now becoming more central to tracks, increasingly drastic and apocalyptic, with more unique timbres and much more syncopated and deranged variations. These developments, and especially the iconic use of alarm-like and choir-like sounds within 90s rave intensified the sense of anticipation already conveyed by the vamp-like riff. But despite all this evolution, it maintains the repetitive and unresolved character of this “vamp,” announcing a threat that never arrives. This leads us to ask, why did this paradox gain such centrality in Rave/Hardcore? Why did it become so popular? and what is its purpose and meaning?
First as a Vamp, then as Riff
Rave and Hardcore are curious cultural phenomena that cannot be understood outside their historical context. Much has been said about the millenarian and even apocalyptic characters present in Rave and Hardcore cultures. Initially part of the same unit, they more evidently presented this tension between an optimistic New Age millenarianism and a dystopian apocalyptic cry. After the multiple schisms that occurred post-1993, these emotions would take different paths, but the millennial awareness would remain a common denominator, for better or for worse. Thus, these alarming and anticipating sounds reflect a generation standing at "the end of history," whether it was the end of the Cold War, the age of Aquarius, an imminent apocalypse, Skynet taking over or the messiah’s second coming.
Considering this, it’s easier to understand why this “deviation" in the use of the vamp as a repetitive riff, and why it fitted so well with the sirens, alarms, bells and choirs, and the de-sexualized references to ecstasy, climax, orgasms and alikes. It seems to serve as a metaphor for the very experience of uncertainty in the face of a conclusion that never arrives, but has become ubiquitous. The modern world it's not just changing but literally ending, without clear signals of when, but with an overload of symptoms that scream it is coming soon. Within that frame, the rave vamp-riff, now spiced with sirens and wailing sounds, becomes an ecstatic trance of foreboding, in the face of imminent yet elusive collapse. This makes the connection with a soundtrack inspired by the arrival of the Messiah more significant. In the same way, the music video of “What Time is Love?” becomes more meaningful, showing the KLF driving through infinite roads without ever reaching their destination.
First as a vamp, then as a riff, the imminence of this pattern didn’t just permeate Belgian Techno; it imprinted itself onto hundreds, if not thousands, of tracks from the rave’s golden age. And perhaps, caught between the waning specter of nuclear annihilation and the impending turn of the millennium—what we now call “the 90s”—there was nothing left to do but surrender and enjoy the vertigo of a paradoxical “end/beginning”, rushing in yet slipping away like a mirage.
Related articles:
- “Liminal Tracks - At the intersection of Techno and Hardcore in the early 90s”: https://thehardcoreoverdogs.blogspot.com/2024/03/liminal-tracks-at-intersection-of.html
- “Warped Visions: An Audiovisual Dive into the Reign of Belgian Techno”: https://thehardcoreoverdogs.blogspot.com/2024/12/warped-visions-audiovisual-dive-into.html
(AI disclaimer: ChatGPT has been used on some parts of this text.)