Drexciya: 'Living On The Edge' (off 'Drexciya 4: The Unknown Aquazone', Submerge Recordings, 1994)
Showing posts with label Detroit techno. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Detroit techno. Show all posts
Monday, March 30, 2009
Drexciya: 'Living On The Edge' (1994)
Drexciya: 'Living On The Edge' (off 'Drexciya 4: The Unknown Aquazone', Submerge Recordings, 1994)
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
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:
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.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Ron Murphy, Detroit Techno's Legendary Mastering Engineering Dies
Ron Murphy (3 March 1948 - 13 January 2008)
Ron Murphy, the legendary mastering engineer of Detroit's NSC/Sound Enterprises has died of heart attack. Murphy was responsible for the mastering of some of the most respected Detroit techno vinyl releases, for such labels as Underground Resistance, KMS, Metroplex, Black Nation, Direct Beat, Axis, Planet E, Basic Channel (actually from Berlin but not without its Detroit connections) and many others.
NSC articles:
More obituaries:
Friday, September 21, 2007
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):
Thursday, March 01, 2007
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
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
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.
Friday, August 04, 2006
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
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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
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
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).
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Some related videos @ YouTube here and here.
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