Ears To The House doesn’t really mind you knowing we have no time for the Belleville Three fairytale of how Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson and Juan Atkins changed the world with their brand of techno. But one thing that’s safer to conclude is Saunderson is by far the most prolific of the three, still releasing new music today.

But in this day and age, making and releasing music simply doesn’t pay the bills in the dance music world – not unless you’re selling or being streamed an absolutely colossal number of times, anyway. Which is why many producers have to diversify – and one option frequently chosen is the sample pack route.

Time was that the samples a producer used were a tightly kept secret. It’s well known, for example, that DJ Pierre used to play little loops from hip-hop records in reverse on some of his Wild Pitch remixes – but we shall never know exactly where they were sourced from. Nowadays? It’s a different world.

Hence why the right sample pack at the right time with the right name attached can be a real money spinner. Kevin Saunderson has apparently decided he wants his own slice of this lucrative pie and has now released his own sample pack on Loopcloud. And to be fair, we don’t blame him – there’s trouble brewing in the economy right now.

And now for a question which doesn’t so much look at the elephant in the room than repeatedly poke it with a stick. Where are the sample packs from the other two? When he’s not travelling to London to play Cybotron gigs, Juan Atkins could easily put his own together – surely a self-dubbed innovator who claims he invented the entire techno genre would want to encourage others to innovate, too?

Rest assured he’d get some publicity in the press for it – our deep respect for him at Ears To The House practically guarantees it. And as for a certain Mr Derrick May, the money alone should be incentive for the occasional 59-year old DJ to get into the studio. Unless, of course, there’s something we’re not being told here…