G.T.O.

London-based ex-video artist Lee Newman ranked among the scant female contributors shaping techno’s early trajectory. Her primary sonic touchstones lay in industrial music, particularly the work of Test Department and the roster of Chicago’s Wax Trax Records. Over several years she concentrated on DJ sets, remixes and studio programming while also penning the recurring “Technohead” column for DJ magazine. All of these pursuits were undertaken alongside her partner Michael Wells. The duo had first operated in the mid-1980s under the name Greater Than One—the phrase later shortened to the acronym GTO—and issued a series of experimental albums. Two of their pivotal techno tracks, “Pure” on Go! Bang and “Listen To The Rhythm Flow” on Belgium’s Jumping Man imprint, were gathered onto a debut album whose fluid, trance-inflected approach departed from the rigid four-to-the-floor template many expected. That album had been heralded by the single “Love Is Everywhere.” A subsequent release, “Dub Killer,” pushed the experiment further by stretching tempos to a near standstill. Recording as Tricky Disco, Newman and Wells placed two singles—“Tricky Disco” in 1990 and “Housefly” in 1991—with the Warp label; under the aliases John & Julie they explored hardcore, and as Church Of Ecstasy they worked with Rising High. Additional collaborations linked them to Berlin’s DJ Tanith and Detroit’s Underground Resistance.