Schranz

This page is about a style of techno music. For the skier, see Karl Schranz.Schranz [] is the name given to European (especially German) hard techno, a style of techno typically around 140-150 BPM and based around massively bass-heavy kick drums, driving percussion and distorted, looping synth noises. The music can however be slower. Origin of the term: The term originated in 1994 when Frankfurt-based DJ Chris Liebing used it to describe a certain type of techno when searching for records at the now closed "Boy Records" store in Frankfurt. The next time he visited the shop, the owner had a selection of harder techno records filed under "Schranz". -- "For me personally, since that day in 1994, "Schranz" is a description for various dark and distorted sounds in Techno" (Chris Liebing 2002). To this day, there still remains speculation about the meaning of the word "Schranz" within the Techno scene. While many believe it to simply imitate the sound of a crunchy lo-fi percussion loop, there are other interpretations. For one it is a surname found predominantly in Austria. Also, "schranzen" means to eat loudly and voraciously in Dutch slang. There are speculations, however, that it was meant as a contraction of the two German verbs schreien (scream) and tanzen (dance), i.e. "schr-anz".
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