Nobody turns to a CBS sitcom for its deep insights into underground music, but there’s a throwaway line in an old episode of “How I Met Your Mother” where a character invites his friend to a techno club. “You up for some super loud, repetitive music that hasn’t changed since the mid-’90s?” he asks.
It’s a cheap shot, yet there’s a little truth to it: For listeners who aren’t ingrained in the electronic scene, techno music hasn’t fundamentally changed much over the last two decades, and that can seem especially true in the Midwest, where house and techno hit first and hardest. Cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Detroit have always clung to those genre traditions, and while both styles have continued evolving in some truly exciting ways for enthusiasts, to outsiders it can still just sound like the same old house and techno.
Max Holiday, founder of the Milwaukee electronic label Close Up of The Serene, is careful to stress that he shares a deep appreciation for those foundational styles. “They are the vital roots that everything comes from,” Holiday says. “Milwaukee’s had a booming house and techno scene for a long time, and at various points in history, little scenes have popped up around it. But it’s still four-on-the-floor, 126 BMP-to-132 BMP house and techno music, and that’s just not the full picture of what’s out there.”
Holiday and his label cohorts, who perform under the monikers MS 115 and Liquid City Motors, prefer to take a broader, more globalist view of dance music—one that embraces the genre in nearly all of its modern forms. And there are a lot of them: Baltimore club music, Jersey club, New York ballroom—pretty much any regional electronic music tied to black or queer communities—along with hardcore techno, jungle, U.K. funky, drum ’n’ bass, grime, future bass explosion and on and on.
“Maybe it’s our generation or a cultural thing, but we’re internet kids,” Holiday says. “We’ve grown up on the internet and listening to people from across the world. We’ve always been drawn to turning over a rock on the internet and finding this whole explosion of music that comes at you.”
They call it progressive music, for lack of a better term—though even that doesn’t quite do justice to the scope of it all—and for the last two years, alongside the label, they’ve themed an event around it called Precognition at a rather unconventional venue: the Riverwest club Quarters Rock ’n’ Roll Palace. “We had always known the best room for what we wanted to do would be Quarters,” Holiday explains, “because it’s small, blank, tiny and loud, and you can transform it.” Holiday admits the night can be a tough sell. “Precognition is a relatively unforgiving club experience,” he says. “There’s no bar stools. There are no lights on. It’s hard to see. It’s very loud and immersive. That’s the point of it; it’s supposed to be an audio immersion experience. The entire reason for it is the music.”
On Saturday, Nov. 4, Precognition will celebrate its two-year anniversary with an event that will also double as its farewell. For its final headliner, Holiday has booked Ash Lauryn, a Detroit-raised, now Atlanta-based house and techno DJ who made waves this year with a mix called Black Girls Like Techno Too. “She’s got a very distinct take on house and techno and a vital commitment to preserving the roots of the music, while also moving forward and creating a new take on those sounds,” Holiday says.
There’s a cliché when events like this come to a close that it marks the end of the era, but that’s not really the case with Precognition. Close Up of the Serene will continue as a label, and Holiday says he’ll continue booking electronic shows, though what shape they’ll take he doesn’t know yet.
“We just thrive on new energy,” says Holiday, who over his years in the scene has retired his share of recording projects (Young Holidays and Athletic Supply among them). “I love reinvention, fresh starts and learning everything you can and then taking that experience and building something new. Closure on one idea is what leads to the next.”
Precognition hosts its final installment Saturday, Nov. 4 at Quarters Rock ’n’ Roll Palace at 9 p.m., with Ash Lauryn and resident DJs Max Holiday, MS 115 and Liquid City Motors. Entry is free before 11 p.m. and $5 after.
