Tekno
Tekno, also called free tekno, is the fast, raw electronic dance music played at free parties and unlicensed raves, especially in Europe.
It grew out of the British free party movement of the early 1990s. The sound system Spiral Tribe was the first to make and spread the style, and took it to France and eastern Europe after a crackdown on raves at home. The music is fast and repetitive, typically 150 to 185 beats per minute with a pounding kick drum, and is played at multi-day free festivals called teknivals. The spelling with a 'k' is deliberate, to mark it off from techno.
Artists it is known for: Spiral Tribe, Crystal Distortion, 69db.
- Family
- Electronic & Dance
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- United Kingdom and Europe, early 1990s
- Also called
- free tekno, freetekno
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 3%
About 2,300 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have tekno among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Tekno artists
STAKILLAZ
HELLBLADE
prodArvee
HOLY PRIEST
DJ ZUP RAlii
HARDWICK
akkiemi
DJ TÖRKE
Vieze Asbak
wharoxmaneThe tekno artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.