I just want to say that some kinds of techno are meant to be stiff, jerky. That's what makes it techno and not tek-house, you know? I don't know what you cats listen to but there is so much diversity out there that people often generalize about what should be what and how this and that should sound.
If you listen to guys like T-1000, his hard-minimal shite is just POUND CLOSED-HAT (reverbed)
like, nothing else, it's all in the synths.
Any drumcode track is much more (hence the name) drum-oriented and those cats really know how to program drums...
Tech=house like middle-school detroit shit (stacey pullen "Ritual Beating System" relies heavily on bad-ass accenting, manual quantize-tweaking (I mean, this is before groove templates or anything...he did this shit by making a 1.01.48 into a 1.01.46 by ear).
A lot of my rock-friends who only like the Crystal Method listen to my Tresor albums and are like "this is stupid" and utter that perennial complaint of "anybody with a drum machine could do that" ...
NOOO!!!!! If you say so, then do it. I give them a cracked rebirth and they come up with SHIT SHIT SHIT that is only a caricature of what they heard and a REALLY BAD caricature with no art.
Listen to Frankie Bones. On some tracks you think, "god, this guy has no fucking talent" but if you've heard his middle school shit (1994-96ish) you know that he can produce some bomb as shit...and then his stupid shit grows on you as you really listen to the details.
A lot of Techno is as much, if not more about sound creation and timbre and mixing than it is about "oh, hell yeah, I've got this bomb ass 'groovy' drumtrack"
SOme people need to get out of the studio and into the clubs more...remember where you came from and remember what makes you into a trainspotter, bobbing your head up front and jumping with the candy-ravers as you give each other a special eye-contact indicating "yes, I understand this set...this is it, right now...Terry Mullen is the headliner, and he's fun and all, but this guy, with his dj haircut and roman nose, sweatin his ass off, this guy is spinning the innovative shit...THIS is future music and I'm not on any pills and I wish I could capture this moment and show it to people..."
And it's usually forgotten when the 4 am disco house starts and everybody is dancing to the funky samples of the past. The future is forgotten by then...
I LOVE DISCO HOUSE and all, but ... hey...