hugopal Your first line there is actually quite pertinent.
Although I of course disagree with Prydzā original statement, it at first glance seems rather jarring that itās Ben Sims and Dave Clarke jumping in to try and disagree with his claim that techno is āthe music of the pastā.
Tbf, Ben Sims has released a few decent tracks in recent years which keep his more typical loopy grooves but with a bit more of a modern polish, but ultimately Sims and Clarke are pretty old-school and far from the first people one would point to in order to support the idea that techno is indeed still somehow futuristic. The notion that they may have been ātriggeredā by Prydz could have some truth to it.
I have been a fan of Clarkeās music over the years, but he has very much become an āold man yells at cloudā recently. Having already achieved a very successful and no doubt lucrative career, heās basically taken to badmouthing pretty much every major new development and artist in the techno scene, knowing that it wonāt effect him one jot as he approaches a comfortable retirement. His targeting of so-called ābusiness technoā in particular seems a tad hypocritical given how many huge, commercial festivals heās headlined over the years. Itās partly just an easy card for him to play to try and maintain some street-cred while deflecting from his own career.
Back to Simsā original tweet - as some have pointed out above, Prydz did release a few tracks early in his career that were championed by quite a few underground techno jocks, and he was also close to the likes of John & Jesper Dahlback and Adam Beyer in the 00s, so even if heās a bit out of the loop on a lot of whatās going on now he does have some underground credentials and Simsā slight on him isnāt 100% accurate. That Cirez D at ARC Festival set alistair posted above also does have a surprising amount of actual techno in there (including, ironically, a Dave Clarke track).
Finally, I also would be surprised if Sims would ever (have) turn(ed) down business class flights to a gig if the promoters were offering it, but heās probably past the point in his career where that would be on the cards so he can instead virtue-signal about it to his heartās content (while perhaps hiding a bit of envy).
