Rhythmism.com
Tuesday, Mar 2nd 2010, 04:30 PM
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D25: Detroit Techno Celebrates 25 Years | Shore Club, Miami - March 25th
At any given moment, countless people are listening to electronic music, much of it directly influenced by a sound coming from the Motor City, the former home of Motown and the birthplace of a genre known to the world as Detroit Techno.
The year 2010 is an exciting time for the Detroit electronic music community as it marks the 25th anniversary of the birth of Techno in the city. To celebrate, a collective of artists from Detroit past and present will be coming together to perform under the banner D25: Detroit Twenty Five. Included in this collective will be some of the most influential and respected artists to emerge from the city including Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May, Mike Banks, Carl Craig, Stacey Pullen, Kenny Larkin and many others. Throughout 2010 and into 2011, these unique collaborative D25 events will be taking place worldwide celebrating this momentous occasion in Detroit music history and the lasting impact of both the music and the many artists associated with it.
It is hard to believe that it has been twenty-five years since 1985 when Juan Atkins founded his independent record label Metroplex in Detroit. Launching with the ground breaking hit single “No UFO’s” (recorded by Atkins under his alias - Model 500), the Metroplex imprint quickly set a new benchmark for music in the city. Atkins’ releases like “Night Drive,” “Interference” and “The Chase” helped the seeds of a new techno movement in the city propagate, promoting a new mode of creativity. We should not forget though that Atkins built Metroplex on the ground he’d already been exploring for five years along with his partner Richard “3070” Davis in the band Cybotron. Together in their home studio in Ypsilanti, the duo had quickly racked up some of the finest electronic records ever made including tough, otherworldly yet warm timeless cuts like "Clear," "R-9", and the song that launched the Detroit Techno style, 1984’s "Techno City"
Derrick May once famously described Detroit Techno as "Just like Detroit, a complete mistake. It's like George Clinton and Kraftwerk stuck in an elevator." But like Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson, Derrick and almost all their successors took a lot of inspiration for their seminal work directly from a late night Detroit radio DJ The Electrifying Mojo. Mojo (real name Charles Johnson) ran a five-hour long radio show every night from 1977 through the 80s, taking in everything from new European New Wave imports from the likes of Kraftwerk to the funk / pop of Prince and the B-52’s. Mojo’s eclecticism and wide ranging tastes didn’t have boundaries – if anything, the only universal theme in his show was a feeling of funk (electronic, acoustic, white or black, it didn’t matter) – one segment of his show was even called “The Midnight Funk Association.”
But just as the term "Techno" suggests, the musical genre was also made possible by new and, more importantly, inexpensive technology. For example, the Roland TR-808, a programmable drum machine, was released in late 1980 and quickly provided the key distinctive sound for both Electro and countless early Techno and House tracks. Similarly other machines like the Korg Poly-800 synthesizer, Yamaha DX-100 synthesizer, Roland RS-09 string synthesizer, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 synthesizer, Roland SH-101 synthesizer, DR-55 rhythm machine, Roland TR-909 drum machine, Roland TB-303 bass liner generator, Roland MC-50 sequencer and Akai S900 sampler were all instrumental in the development of this new Detroit sound.
In the late eighties and early nineties, something unusual happened to many of the Detroit-based electronic music producers. Techno and House, which had failed to gain mainstream success in the United States, despite being featured on TV in Detroit and selling heavily, became an unstoppable phenomenon in Europe - especially in the UK. In fact many were first exposed to the term “Techno” when it entered into common usage via Virgin Records’ much-loved 1988 compilation “Techno! The New Dance Sound Of Detroit.”
Reflecting on the past twenty-five years of Detroit Techno and what makes the music from the city special, Carl Craig recently commented, “I think the economic devastation that the city has endured over the last 30-odd years helped us to fantasize about a brighter future, it is this fantasy that we put into our music.” Meanwhile, Kenny Larkin remarked, “Detroit Techno has something that is indefinable, something that is missing from a lot of music today. Simply put I’d call this "soul." I don't mean soul as in the "Soul Brotha-Black Pride.” I mean an entity in the music that elicits feelings deep inside you that triggers warm fuzzy emotions.” Something many are sure to be feeling at D25 nights around the globe this coming year.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Detroit Premier Artists presents
D25: Celebrating 25 Years of Detroit Techno
Carl Craig
Juan Atkins
Kenny Larkin
Theo Parrish
Kenny Dixon Jr.
Stacey Pullen
Monty Luke
Kevin Saunderson
Kyle Hall
Shore Club
1901 Collins Ave
Miami, FL
8pm-5am, 21+
$20 in advance
The year 2010 is an exciting time for the Detroit electronic music community as it marks the 25th anniversary of the birth of Techno in the city. To celebrate, a collective of artists from Detroit past and present will be coming together to perform under the banner D25: Detroit Twenty Five. Included in this collective will be some of the most influential and respected artists to emerge from the city including Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May, Mike Banks, Carl Craig, Stacey Pullen, Kenny Larkin and many others. Throughout 2010 and into 2011, these unique collaborative D25 events will be taking place worldwide celebrating this momentous occasion in Detroit music history and the lasting impact of both the music and the many artists associated with it.
It is hard to believe that it has been twenty-five years since 1985 when Juan Atkins founded his independent record label Metroplex in Detroit. Launching with the ground breaking hit single “No UFO’s” (recorded by Atkins under his alias - Model 500), the Metroplex imprint quickly set a new benchmark for music in the city. Atkins’ releases like “Night Drive,” “Interference” and “The Chase” helped the seeds of a new techno movement in the city propagate, promoting a new mode of creativity. We should not forget though that Atkins built Metroplex on the ground he’d already been exploring for five years along with his partner Richard “3070” Davis in the band Cybotron. Together in their home studio in Ypsilanti, the duo had quickly racked up some of the finest electronic records ever made including tough, otherworldly yet warm timeless cuts like "Clear," "R-9", and the song that launched the Detroit Techno style, 1984’s "Techno City"
Derrick May once famously described Detroit Techno as "Just like Detroit, a complete mistake. It's like George Clinton and Kraftwerk stuck in an elevator." But like Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson, Derrick and almost all their successors took a lot of inspiration for their seminal work directly from a late night Detroit radio DJ The Electrifying Mojo. Mojo (real name Charles Johnson) ran a five-hour long radio show every night from 1977 through the 80s, taking in everything from new European New Wave imports from the likes of Kraftwerk to the funk / pop of Prince and the B-52’s. Mojo’s eclecticism and wide ranging tastes didn’t have boundaries – if anything, the only universal theme in his show was a feeling of funk (electronic, acoustic, white or black, it didn’t matter) – one segment of his show was even called “The Midnight Funk Association.”
But just as the term "Techno" suggests, the musical genre was also made possible by new and, more importantly, inexpensive technology. For example, the Roland TR-808, a programmable drum machine, was released in late 1980 and quickly provided the key distinctive sound for both Electro and countless early Techno and House tracks. Similarly other machines like the Korg Poly-800 synthesizer, Yamaha DX-100 synthesizer, Roland RS-09 string synthesizer, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 synthesizer, Roland SH-101 synthesizer, DR-55 rhythm machine, Roland TR-909 drum machine, Roland TB-303 bass liner generator, Roland MC-50 sequencer and Akai S900 sampler were all instrumental in the development of this new Detroit sound.
In the late eighties and early nineties, something unusual happened to many of the Detroit-based electronic music producers. Techno and House, which had failed to gain mainstream success in the United States, despite being featured on TV in Detroit and selling heavily, became an unstoppable phenomenon in Europe - especially in the UK. In fact many were first exposed to the term “Techno” when it entered into common usage via Virgin Records’ much-loved 1988 compilation “Techno! The New Dance Sound Of Detroit.”
Reflecting on the past twenty-five years of Detroit Techno and what makes the music from the city special, Carl Craig recently commented, “I think the economic devastation that the city has endured over the last 30-odd years helped us to fantasize about a brighter future, it is this fantasy that we put into our music.” Meanwhile, Kenny Larkin remarked, “Detroit Techno has something that is indefinable, something that is missing from a lot of music today. Simply put I’d call this "soul." I don't mean soul as in the "Soul Brotha-Black Pride.” I mean an entity in the music that elicits feelings deep inside you that triggers warm fuzzy emotions.” Something many are sure to be feeling at D25 nights around the globe this coming year.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Detroit Premier Artists presents
D25: Celebrating 25 Years of Detroit Techno
Carl Craig
Juan Atkins
Kenny Larkin
Theo Parrish
Kenny Dixon Jr.
Stacey Pullen
Monty Luke
Kevin Saunderson
Kyle Hall
Shore Club
1901 Collins Ave
Miami, FL
8pm-5am, 21+
$20 in advance
