Adult.

Adult.: 'Inside' (2008)


Adult.: 'I Feel Worse When I'm with You' (2007)


Adult.: 'Folk Trilogy' (2007)


Adult.: 'In My Nerves' (2005)

Adult. interview @ pHinnWeb (October 1999)

Drexciya: 'Living On The Edge' (1994)

Drexciya: 'Living On The Edge' (off 'Drexciya 4: The Unknown Aquazone', Submerge Recordings, 1994)

Drexciya Research Lab

Drexciya @ pHinnWeb

Drexciya @ Discogs

Ron Asheton of The Stooges (1948 - 2009*)

Ron Asheton, who played guitar for The Stooges, has died at the age of 60. The Stooges were born in the late 1960s in Ann Arbor, near Detroit, in the aftermath of psychedelia and garage rock explosion; often joining on gigs The MC5, who considered The Stooges their "little brother" band. Like Scott Asheton, his drummer brother and fellow Stooges member, Ron Asheton always remained in the shadow of Iggy Pop, the wild frontman of the band (who later became a successful solo artist, recording with such people as David Bowie), but it was Ron's spiky guitar sound which was there to influence punk rock some years after The Stooges had split.

The 21st century Stooges reunion saw Iggy, Ron and Scott together again, though for many fans the 2007 album The Weirdness is best to be forgotten: just stick to the classics, The Stooges (1969), Funhouse (1970) and Raw Power (1973; although Ron was only "reduced" to play bass there, with James Williamson on guitar) -- there's also plenty of sessions, unreleased and bootleg material around, just see The Stooges @ Discogs. As the band themselves put it on one of their more rare songs: Jesus Loves The Stooges! R.I.P. Ron.

More @ MLive.Com

Obituary @ BBC News

Obituary @ CNN

(*) Ron's body was found at his home several days after the demise, so it's not clear if his death took place before the New Year or after.


The Stooges live in Cincinnati, 1970


The Stooges/MC5


The Stooges, "a hippie festival" in 1970

The Mythical Worlds of Drexciya and Dopplereffekt

Dopplereffekt: "We had to sterilize the population"

One of my favourite blogs is Drexciya Research Lab, which features thorough, analytical and well-written accounts on all things related to the mysterious Detroit-originated African-American electronic acts Drexciya (the late James Stinson with and without Gerald Donald), Dopplereffekt (Gerald Donald a.k.a. Heinrich Müller et al.) and Donald's countless side projects, both solo and with collaborators, such as Der Zyklus, Arpanet, Elecktroids, Japanese Telecom, Black Replica, Zwischenwelt, Zerkalo, and so on! Drexciya Research Lab lists now loads of YouTube and Flickr sites featuring videos (both fan-created and of live performances) and gig photos:

Dopplereffekt +

Dopplereffekt Live +

There's also an interesting essay on Black Replica project.

What is especially fascinating with Drexciya, Dopplereffekt and Gerald Donald's other projects is that they have created their own esoteric and cryptic mythologies around music, providing endless hours of pondering for those dedicated fans into deciphering possible coded messages, hints and hidden meanings from the tracks, record sleeves and so on (something that is also found with such cultish artists as Aphex Twin, not averse to playing around with his sometimes over-excited fans and their heated expectations); not lessened by the fact that very little biographical info has been offered on the creators behind these records (there's never any better media strategy than a carefully premeditated veil of mystery). With Drexciya it was the specific science fiction-type thematics of mythical African-based underwater creatures, whereas for Dopplereffekt it has been the controversial and provocative topics such as "racial hygiene" and pornography of their early electro sound-based EPs with consciously "white" European-style Kraftwerkian imagery (collected on Gesamtkunstwerk album); and from the second album on, with more experimental sound, the emphasis has shifted to the hard science of physics and quantum mechanics.

Some Detroit Techno Videos

A Number of Names: 'Sharivari' @ The Scene (1982)


Drexciya: 'Hydro Theory' (with footage from Blue Planet BBC series)


Model 500: 'The Passage' (with footage from 2001: A Space Odyssey)

YouTube offers some 313 techno-related videos such as a version of 'Sharivari' (there are many different spellings for this track, such as 'Sharevari', 'Charivari', etc.) by A Number of Names, which is considered one of the first Detroit techno tracks, if not the very first; I was quite amazed to find this video, made for the dance music show The Scene. Then there are some bootleg videos for Drexciya and Model 500, using footage from BBC and Kubrick's 2001, respectively.

More Detroit techno/electro search results from YouTube (see also ghettotech):

Arpanet

Aztec Mystic (see also: DJ Rolando)

Juan Atkins (see also: Model 500 & Cybotron)

Aux 88

Blake Baxter

Black Replica

Carl Craig

Cybotron

Detroit Grand Pubahs

DJ Assault

DJ Godfather

DJ Rolando

Dopplereffekt

Drexciya

Eddie "Flashin'" Fowlkes

Robert Hood

Kenny Larkin

Derrick May

Jeff Mills

Model 500

Kevin Saunderson

Scan 7

Ultradyne

Underground Resistance

Claude Young

313ctr0: Detroit techno & electro @ pHinnWeb

Mad Mike Banks Interview

Mad Mike Banks, the mysterious head honcho of Detroit's Underground Resistance and one of the most outspoken personalities in the world of techno speaks in this February interview for the German electronic music magazine De:Bug:

http://www.de-bug.de/texte/4639.html

Electronic Music Films

I was recently asked if I knew any documentary films that would shed more light on the history and beginnings of electronic music. I did some searches, and subsequently found out that most of those documentaries in existence (well, at least those listed at Internet) concentrate mostly on the latest developments in electronic music, or to be more precise, electronic dance music and rave culture.

The early history of electronic music (before 1960s, an area mostly populated by academic/avantgarde composers and inventors of electronic instruments) seems to be only sporadically (or as footnotes) featured in most existing documentaries, bar perhaps Steven M. Martin's 1994 feature on León Theremin or even Mika Taanila's 2002 Future Is Not What It Used To Be on Finnish electronic instrument inventor Erkki Kurenniemi; not forgetting the films dedicated to Robert Moog or Bruce Haack. If you know of any other related documentary films, please let me know.

Music Arcade: BBC Radiophonic Workshop (UK, early 80s?)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Discovering Electronic Music (USA, 1983)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

The Electric Music Machine, Five Days at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (UK, 1988)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Bring The Beat Back (Finland, 1992)
Credits
Director Hannu Puttonen info

Rave New World (UK, 1994)

Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (USA, 1994)
related clips @ YouTube

Universal Techno (France, 1996)

Modulations (USA, 1998)
IMDB entry
trailer @ YouTube

Hang The DJ (Canada, 1998)

Sonic Visions: From Stockhausen to Squarepusher (USA/Netherlands, 1998)

Better Living Through Circuitry (Australia, 1999)
clips @ YouTube

Synergy: Visions of Vibe (UK/Japan/Germany, 1999)
clips @ YouTube

Bass Frequency (USA, 2001)

The Future Is Not What It Used To Be (Finland, 2002)
info @ pHinnWeb

Electro Dziska: Miami 2001-2002
a clip @ YouTube

Radiophonic Workshop -Alchemists of Sound (UK, 2003)
clips @ YouTube
BBC Radiophonic Workshop @ Wikipedia

Bruce Haack: King of Techno (USA, 2004)
clips @ YouTube

Moog (USA, 2004)
IMDB entry
info @ Wikipedia
(see also: Bob Moog clips @ YouTube)

Liquid Vinyl (USA, 2006)
trailer @ YouTube
a clip @ YouTube

Darkbeat, An Electro World Voyage (USA, 2006)
trailer @ YouTube

Feiern (Germany, 2006)
trailer @ YouTube

High Tech Soul: The Creation of Techno Music (USA, 2006)
trailer @ YouTube
another trailer @ YouTube

Put the Needle on the Record (USA, 2006)
a clip @ YouTube

Rough Electro (Romania, 2006)
trailer @ YouTube
another clip @ YouTube

The Sound of Dubstep (UK, 2006)
a clip @ YouTube

What The Future Sounded Like (Australia, 2007)

More related titles @ IMDB:
http://imdb.com/keyword/electronic-music/

All electronic music documentary search results @ YouTube

History of electronic music links @ pHinnWeb

And a silly old text of mine

Drexciya: "Fear of a Wet Planet" by Kodwo Eshun

"Fear of a Wet Planet", a 1998 article by Kodwo Eshun about the legendary African-American "aquatic electro" act Drexciya has now been archived at The Wire magazine site.

Aux 88 to Finland!

AUX 88: The legends of Detroit Techno Bass @ FLASH meets FBI!

Friday 1 September 2006

AUX 88 (Detroit, USA) live
Lil'Tony (FBI resident)
Erkko (YleX, Niitty)
Messis

@ Kuudes linja
Hämeentie 13, Helsinki, Finland.
entrance from the
yardside (Kaikukatu 4)
2200–0400 hours
Age limit 20
Tickets 8e

I Need To Freak -- one of my biggest Detroit electro favourites coming to Finland! The musical collaboration of Tommy Hamilton and Keith Tucker started in the mid-1980s. They launched Aux 88 in 1993, releasing a series of legendary 12"s for Direct Beat label. Aux 88 has been gigging among all with Juan Atkins and Mad Mike of Underground Resistance. Recently Hamilton and Tucker returned together after having done solo projects (among all Auxmen) for some years. The new album, called Aux 88 was released in Japan this year. Their earlier album releases are Is It Man Or Machine? (1996) and Xeo-Genetic (1998).


Aux 88: 'Electro Techno'


Aux 88: 'Play It Loud'


Aux 88: Mini Video Fuse Festival in 2005

All Aux 88 search results @ YouTube

***

You can listen to some Aux 88 tracks at their MySpace site

The official Aux 88 site
Aux 88 info @ Smack Dynamik
Aux 88 @ MP3.com
Aux 88 discography @ Discogs.com

Drexciya Research Lab

Through Wikipedia's Drexciya page I found this blog called Drexciya Research Lab giving in-depth analysis to all things Drexciya, Dopplereffekt and their various offshoot projects.

Drexciya was a widely acclaimed Detroit techno/electro/ambient act headed by James Stinson (who sadly passed away in 2002), with some classic releases for such labels as Underground Resistance, Rephlex and Clone. Stinson was assisted by Gerald Donald, familiar for his own Dopplereffekt act, whose minimal electro sound emulated Kraftwerk and early synthpop, with some controversial song lyrics varying from the joys of being a porno star to the sterilization of human race. Both Drexciya and Dopplereffekt were shrouded in mystery, with any photographs of group members being virtually non-existent (or at least extremely rare). There are such further Stinson/Donald acts in existence as Glass Domain, Japanese Telecom and Arpanet, keeping any collector perfectionists constantly on their toes.

Drexciya Research Lab also has a mother site of the same name, giving a namecheck to pHinnWeb at its links ("The classic and much read Phinnweb page" for Drexciya).

***

Some related videos @ YouTube here and here.