Techno Tales

Episode 36 –Shinedoe - Dillema

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 02:49:00 -0000

It’s the mid-1990s in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where Chinedum Nwosu, a local teenage student, dances at nightclubs in the city. Nwosu dances not only socially, but also professionally, being paid to perform at hardcore, techno, and house music events. While this is only a part time job for her, Nwosu realises the importance of feeling and loving the music to which she is dancing if she is to do it well. When the presiding soundtrack across Amsterdam clubs then gradually changes against her liking, she reasons that she has to stop dancing, given she now isn't wholly engaging the music. Rather than heralding the end of her relationship with electronic music however, this marks a transition in her relationship with such music, as she instead begins djing the forms of it for which she has a passion. Nwosu’s djing then leads to her producing tracks, from which comes her first release, the instant classic, “Dillema”.

Episode 35 –Surgeon - Scorn

Fri, 15 May 2026 02:01:00 -0000

It’s the mid-1980s just outside Northampton, England, where Anthony Child attends a rural comprehensive school. Around the age of fifteen, while attending the school, he watches a video collection of clips featuring the writer and artist, William Burroughs. One of these video clips leaves a particular impression on Child. To this point in his life, Child has viewed forms of media, such as books and music, as having straightforward narratives. Witnessing Burroughs discuss the “cut up” method in this video, reconfigures his young mind however, encouraging Child to focus on the process, rather than the content, of creative pursuits. Inspired by Burroughs’ use of cut up methods to rearrange the sequence of words in order to reveal a new meaning from them, Child applies it to his developing ideas around the production of sounds. In the years to come, this in turn will inform his creation of seminal 90s English techno, under the artist title Surgeon, such as the track, “Scorn”.

Episode 34 –Sasha - Bloodlock

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 02:40:00 -0000

It’s 1987 in Wales, United Kingdom and Alexander Coe, who is still in his teens, regularly drives to Manchester from his Bangor home, to go clubbing at the Hacienda nightclub. The scene there revolves around early house music with a mix of other styles, and attracts groups of proficient dancers in trendy clothes who hold dance battles. After then spending a few months away from the club, Coe returns to the Hacienda in early 1988, to find a somewhat different spectacle and sound now in place. Acid house has arrived, full of Day-Glo fluorescent colour, distorted smiley faces, strobe lights, and disordered carnage on the dancefloor. Coe has never seen people behave so freely, and soon becomes obsessed with what only a few weeks prior would have been an alien collection of sounds to him. He soon drops out of school, moves to Manchester, and goes to the club practically every night it is open. This commitment to acid house, and other related forms of electronic music that come after it, motivate him to explore djing, and producing, eventually under the artist title of Sasha, a name that people in his life use to refer to him. Fifteen years or so following this introduction to a new sonic world, Sasha releases the track, "Bloodlock".

Episode 33 –Ellen Allien - Shorty

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 01:56:00 -0000

It’s November 9th, 1989, in Berlin, Germany, and the wall dividing the eastern and western sides of the city, and the country, is today being torn down. A 21-year-old West German woman, Ellen Fraatz, spends the day celebrating with her friends, riding around on their bikes and exploring spaces they had not been able to previously, on what she later describes as the happiest day of her life. In the months and years following this momentous occasion, Fraatz spends more and more time in East Berlin, in particular attending the clubs that start opening in warehouses and other unusual spaces there. On these adventures she begins going to acid house and techno parties, from which develops her love of the music, leading to Fraatz producing tracks such as “Shorty”, under the artist name, Ellen Allien.

Episode 32 –Phuture - Acid Tracks

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 02:00:00 -0000

It’s 1985 in the largest Midwestern city of the United States, Chicago, and three friends are tinkering with a newly acquired device, the Roland TB-303 bass synthesiser. The 303 has been manufactured and marketed as a bass line generator, for solo musicians to use as an accompaniment in the same way they might use a drum machine for drum parts. Earl Smith, otherwise known as Spanky, Herbert Jackson, or Herb J, and Nathaniel Pierre Jones, DJ Pierre, find an entirely different personality and application though, for the 303. On the first day that DJ Pierre tinkers with the device, he extracts from it a squelchy, psychedelic sound, that has seemingly nothing in common with a bass guitar. With this sound he creates the core of the track that will become known as “Acid Tracks”, from which the genre of acid house will emerge.

Episode 31 –The Future Sound of London - Papua New Guinea

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 03:04:40 -0000

It’s the mid-1980s in Manchester, England, and Garry Cobain, originally from the town of Bedford, moves to the city to study electronics engineering. At the same time, Glaswegian Brian Dougans is also living in Manchester, having relocated there because it is home to one of the first sound recording technology courses in the United Kingdom. Cobain and Dougans work at the same bar, and after a reportedly tense initial period of knowing each other, they soon bond over music, and share ideas regarding how they each believe electronic music artistry should be explored. These common interests eventually lead to them instigating a collaborative project, which under the name, The Future Sound of London, will in only a few years spawn the ambient techno classic, “Papua New Guinea”.

Episode 30 –Anja Schneider - Belize

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 01:56:00 -0000

It’s the early 1990s, and Anja Schneider, a young German fan of techno music, is seeking out the legendary Tresor nightclub while visiting Berlin. Her life in a small town near Cologne regularly involves attending electronic music parties, however her appetite to explore techno further, partly motivates her journey to Germany’s capital. Schneider duly heads for the Tresor club once she is in Berlin, entering what she believes is the venue, and heading upstairs. There she joins a bustling dancefloor, and hears house, electronica, and hip hop, but not the hard techno beat that she is expecting and desiring. After three to four hours, Schneider suspects accordingly that this venue isn’t the legendary Tresor club about which she has heard so much. When she then politely asks someone else in the club whether she has the right location, he responds that she doesn’t, and taking her by the hand, leads her down a small staircase. Arriving in Tresor’s dark, underground headquarters, Schneider here finds the heart of the Berlin techno sound, which will soon inspire her to not only move here, but also to eventually produce tracks of her own, such as "Belize".

Episode 29 –Takaaki Itoh - Needle

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 02:09:00 -0000

It’s 1994, and Takaaki Itoh, a young Japanese dj with a passion for various forms of electronic music, is beginning to organise his own techno parties in and around the city of Morioka, in northern Japan. Like many people in Japan in the early 1990s, Itoh’s interest in techno has been influenced by artists from the United States and Europe, who tour the country and increasingly release their records there. The growing popularity of techno in Japan is apt, given that so much of the music is made with, and inspired by, devices housing Japanese electronics, in particular those manufactured by the Roland corporation. In the coming years, Itoh’s engagements with techno will expand beyond honouring this music through the parties he organises, to producing his own, soon to be iconic tracks, such as "Needle".

Episode 28 –The Age Of Love (Jam & Spoon Remix) - The Age Of Love (Watch Out For Stella Club Mix)

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 01:01:00 -0000

It’s 1992, and Rolf Ellmar and Markus Löffel have been producing tracks together for about a year in Frankfurt, Germany. The pair work under the artist title, Jam & Spoon, which combines the adapted name that each member has taken on for the collaboration, those names being Jam El Mar and Mark Spoon respectively. Both artists are established in the electronic music industry, El Mar having been part of the formative trance act, Dance 2 Trance, and Spoon being an established dj. Given their reputations, they receive an offer to remix the track, “The Age of Love”, that is already somewhat known in the European club circuit. This track, released two years prior by a project also called The Age of Love, reaches far greater levels of popularity however, after being reinterpreted by Jam & Spoon over two days of production, before influencing trance and other electronic music producers for decades to come.

Episode 27 –3 Phase featuring Dr. Motte - Der Klang Der Familie

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 02:36:00 -0000

It’s February 1989, a few months before the Berlin wall falls. Matthias Roeingh, a dj otherwise known as Dr Motte, is standing on the street outside a Berlin nightclub at three in the morning. He, his girlfriend, and a friend, are discussing how underground parties in England are regularly being stopped by the police there, who in doing so also remove the sound system. Motte and his associates are amused that the response to this from English partygoers is often to dance outside in the streets, with ghetto blasters producing the soundtrack. So enthused is Motte by this story, that he raises the possibility of holding a street party in Berlin, in an explosion of colour and sound that might animate the city. As Motte and others develop this idea into a reality in the coming weeks and months, the event becomes known as the Love Parade. By 1992, he and Sven Röhrig, otherwise known as 3 Phase, have produced the track that will serve as the party's unofficial anthem, "Der Klang der Familie".

Episode 26 –808 State - Pacific State

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 02:01:00 -0000

It’s the mid-1980s, and Graham Massey works in a cafe across the road from a record store called Eastern Bloc, in Manchester, England. Established only a couple of years ago by Martin Price and John Berry, Eastern Bloc has become an important part of the Manchester music scene, responsible as it is for introducing locals to much new electronic, hip hop, funk, and other music imported from Detroit, Chicago, and elsewhere. Besides working in a cafe, Massey has much music experience, having been a member of Factory Records’ post-punk band, Biting Tongues, as well as a producer of other artists’ recordings. Given that he works over the road from Eastern Bloc, Massey gets to know Price very well. It is from this association that the two form the group 808 State, and influence the direction of acid house, thanks to their track, “Pacific State”.

Episode 25 –A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 02:58:00 -0000

It’s 1988 in Manchester, England, and a budding electronic music producer called Gerald Simpson is about to drop off a cassette recording to Piccadilly Radio station of one of his regular acid house jams. Simpson’s hope is that people will hear his work on Stu Allen’s Sunday show which features local demo recordings. When this recording is played on air, among the radio audience is local dj, rapper, and A & R staffer for Rham! Records, Aniff Akinola. Upon hearing Simpson’s demo, attributed to an artist called Jackmaster G, Akinola rides his bike down to the station to get a copy. The tape he acquires of the recording features Simpson’s contact details, including the address of his mother’s house where he is living. Simpson and Akinola duly meet, and on the second such occasion Simpson gives Akinola a tape containing some additional demo recordings of his. When Rham! Records hears the tape they take Simpson into the studio, where he will develop one of these recordings into the track “Voodoo Ray”, which will become an unofficial anthem for The Hacienda nightclub in Manchester, the impending summer of love in the United Kingdom, and acid house globally.

Episode 24 –Shake - Mood Swing

Sun, 15 Jun 2025 03:11:28 -0000

It’s the early 1990s, and Anthony Shakir, a local Detroit dj, engineer, and producer, is passing the time at Juan Atkins’ Metroplex studio, where he has worked in various roles over the years. On this occasion that he is in the building at the intersection of Grashit Ave and Riopelle Street, another budding local producer, Claude Young, visits the studio looking for promotional copies of Metroplex releases to play on his radio show. During this first encounter, Shakir and Young become instant friends, leading to them co-creating the record label, Frictional Recordings. Through Frictional, Shakir, under the artist name of Shake, will add a new, grittier tone to Detroit techno, thanks to numerous important tracks he releases, such as “Mood Swing”.

Episode 23 –Octave One - Terraforming

Thu, 15 May 2025 04:43:15 -0000

It’s 1990, and brothers Lenny and Lawrence Burden live in an apartment near a section of Gratiot Ave, Detroit, that is populated by local techno artists. The site has earned the title of Techno Boulevard, in fact, thanks to the buzz of electronic music activity that has infiltrated the area, home as it has become to three of the most important record labels in techno’s early history, Kevin Saunderson’s KMS, Derrick May’s Transmat, and the original spark for it all, Juan Atkins’s Metroplex. The two Burden brothers, along with their brother Lynell, are also producers of techno music, creating their own signature sound which in the years to come will give the world the track, “Terraforming”.

Episode 22 –Drexciya - Neon Falls

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 00:11:00 -0000

It’s 1994, and a book called Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture, has just been published. This book features a chapter titled Black to the Future, in which author Mark Dery examines how in speculative or science fiction, imagined future technologies are sometimes portrayed as creating newly liberated existences for people of African heritage. Dery defines this perspective as Afrofuturist, a concept that will soon become relevant to the techno and associated electronic music being made by almost exclusively black artists in Detroit. This is especially true for the tracks of one such artist, Drexciya, which conceive of a deep-sea environment in which the offspring of Africans who drowned during the transatlantic slave trade, live in a high-tech world of freedom and tranquillity underwater. Drexciya’s techno during the 1990s, constructs the idea of this submerged civilisation, through the watery imagery of tracks such as “Neon Falls”.

Episode 21 –Plastikman - Krakpot

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 01:18:00 -0000

It’s April 1995, and Timothy McVeigh has just bombed a building full of federal employees in Oklahoma City, United States, killing 186 people. Besides causing widespread panic, this mass murder triggers a chain of events that will cause legal issues for one of this generation’s most exciting young techno producers. In the days following the bombing, Canadian electronic music artist, Richie Hawtin, attempts to enter the United States to dj at an event. This is something Hawtin has done hundreds of times before, given that he divides his time between his small hometown on the Canadian side of the border with the United States, and Detroit, where he is involved in the local techno scene. Amid a climate of tightened security in response to the bombing though, on this occasion the United States border authority blocks Hawtin coming into the country, and even serves him with an order prohibiting him from entering the United States indefinitely. This occurs at a moment when Hawtin has never been busier or more in demand, partly thanks to the success of his releases from the last two years, including the track, “Krakpot”.

Episode 20 –Kenny Larkin - Butterflies

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 02:28:00 -0000

It’s the mid-1980s, and Kenny Larkin, who has been serving in the United States Air Force, has just left his role and finished his military career. Part of the motivation for this change, is for Larkin to explore his interest in stand-up comedy. After having left his air force duties however, it isn’t comedy that initially offers him the most significant creative outlet, and public recognition. Larkin instead becomes enamoured with a new form of electronic music that he hears around Detroit, called techno. Not long after these initial encounters, he starts experimenting with creating his own take on techno. And then, a few years following his first recordings, Larkin’s track, “Butterflies”, floats into the world.

Episode 19 –Carl Craig - A Wonderful Life

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 01:14:00 -0000

It’s 1989, and Rhythim Is Rhythim, Derrick May’s Detroit-based, but internationally revered, techno project, is playing at the Town and Country club in Kentish Town, London. It has been a huge night for fans of Detroit electronic music, with Rhythim is Rhythim about to follow the set from the equally renowned group, Inner city, which features May’s old school friend, and fellow Detroit icon, Kevin Saunderson. While Rhythim is Rhythim is typically understood to just be an alias for May, as he takes his position on stage behind the turntables, another person appears to be setting up with a drum machine next to him. This other presence is Carl Craig, a young Detroit dj and producer, who is helping May turn Rhythim Is Rhythim into a touring act. After he has assisted May for these shows, Craig’s own productions in the coming years, such as the track “A Wonderful Life”, will contribute to defining the next generation of Detroit techno.

Episode 18 –DJ Minx - Float

Sun, 15 Dec 2024 01:59:00 -0000

It’s 1996, and Jennifer Witcher, a project manager at General Motors in Detroit, juggles her work responsibilities in the automotive industry, with being an electronic music dj. Her capacity to fulfil these dual commitments is perhaps most tested each week on Mondays, when after working during business hours, she holds down a djing residency in the evening, as the headliner at the Parabox Cafe on Michigan Avenue. One of these Monday night parties proves to be of great significance, when a series of events at it leads to the creation of Witcher’s soon to be influential, Women on Wax project. From this spark, a record label in the same name will emerge in the years following, marking Witcher’s transition from dj to producer, and through which she releases her first creations as DJ Minx, including the track, “Float”.

Episode 17 –DB-X - Bleep

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 01:56:00 -0000

It’s the early 1990s, and Daniel Bell, a Canadian music producer who is now living in Detroit, is relatively well-known for having been a member of the electronic music trio, Cybersonik. Given that his production preferences are not absolutely consistent with the group’s output, which is closer to a European rave soundtrack, he decides to embark on a new, solo project. As Bell releases his forthcoming productions under his new artist pseudonym, DB-X, the stripped back tone of his tracks such as “Bleep”, will contribute to the conception of a newly emerging subgenre of techno, minimal.

Episode 16 –Robert Hood - One Touch

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 01:20:00 -0000

It’s the early 1990s, and electronic music producer, Robert Hood, and his peer, Jeff Mills, regularly call each other on the phone to share the music that they are each making. During one of these calls, Mills tells Hood that the tracks that Hood is producing, which are relatively sparse and tend to loop one sound sequence repeatedly, have a minimalist signature that he can call his own. While Hood knows that the techno he is producing is different, he also insists on contextualising his output within that of a throng of new producers, who he believes are also making minimal techno. This is a collective phenomenon that Hood describes as the minimal nation rising. It is through this description that Hood inadvertently speaks the words that become the title of his forthcoming album, a release that neither Mills nor Hood could have realized, would go on to become immortalised in the origins of minimal techno. In creating the Minimal Nation album, which includes the track, “One Touch”, Hood materialises his desire to return techno to its bare, essential components, which reflect its purity and humanity.

Episode 15 –Jeff Mills - DNA

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 07:21:33 -0000

It’s the late 1980s, and Jeff Mills is a university architecture student in Detroit, as well as a renowned turntablist, dj, and radio host. In exploring producing his own music, Mills has also started to make tracks with another local electronic music artist, Mike Banks. During this period, Mills produces music at night, studies during the day, and sometimes flies overseas to dj at events on weekends. Then one day in class, his university teacher informs him and his peers that they will be studying significant architectural structures around the world, including sites like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and the Colosseum in Rome. When the teacher realises that Mills is the only student to have actually visited all these places, which is a result of his international djing work, she jokes that there might be nothing left for him to discover in architecture. While intended to be light-hearted, this comment helps Mills realize that he is indeed outgrowing the classroom. This will be the last day he attends university, leaving his studies to become a full-time musician, a decision that will eventually lead to him producing his groundbreaking album, Waveform Transmission, which features the track, "DNA".

Episode 14 –The Martian - Skypainter

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 03:36:00 -0000

It’s 1994, and Mike Banks coaches a local high school baseball team in Detroit. In fulfilling this role, he is reportedly more than just a coach, taking on other mentoring responsibilities with many of the young players and providing advice on what they might do with their lives. Banks is also an electronic music artist, and founder of the renowned Detroit music collective, Underground Resistance. Given their strong political and anti-corporate beliefs, Banks and his Underground Resistance co-artists rarely speak to the media about their music. The result of this is that despite Underground Resistance’s increasing notoriety and influence, little is known about the artists themselves. This means that when a secretive techno producer called The Martian starts releasing music, and rumours spread that The Martian is actually Banks, it is not possible to confirm whether he is in fact the author of The Martian’s tracks, such as “Skypainter”.

Episode 13 –X-102 - Titan

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 04:47:00 -0000

It’s 1991, and Mike Banks, Jeff Mills, and Robert Hood, have been making music together in Detroit as Underground Resistance, one of the most significant electronic music collectives to have existed. Notoriously reluctant to discuss their music with the media, the few commentaries they have provided in relation to their music, declare that their priority with the tracks they produce is the tone or sound. Among themselves however, the three artists discuss their interest in undertaking a project, in which they give the conceptual side of the music as much attention as the sonic qualities. Banks in particular has become increasingly curious about connecting his brand of techno, or what he calls hi-tech jazz, with outer-spatial imagery. It is from this impetus that Banks, Mills, and Hood, produce one of the most conceptual electronic music albums ever made. Released under a project titled X-102, the album is called, Discovers The Rings of Saturn, and features the track, “Titan”.

Episode 12 –Underground Resistance - Elimination

Sat, 15 Jun 2024 00:10:35 -0000

It’s 1989, and Mike Banks is a sought-after session musician in Detroit, who plays both guitar and synth on other artists’ recordings. Banks is also a member of a band that the city’s, and maybe the world’s, most famous record label, Motown Records, is interested in signing. Some of his fellow band members see this as a great opportunity for their music careers. Banks also views this as a defining moment of his career, however not because he wants to further his prospects with an internationally revered record company. Rather, in turning down this opportunity, he breaks from the mainstream music world, motivated instead to increasingly dedicate himself to the electronic music that he already makes with his friend, Jeff Mills. Under the title of Underground Resistance, their productions will come to define the second generation of Detroit techno, with tracks such as “Elimination”.

Episode 11 –K Hand - Insight

Wed, 15 May 2024 03:34:59 -0000

It’s the mid-1980s, and Kelli Hand works for a telephone company in Detroit, in their fraud control division. The company for which she works sells cards with phone credit, that customers use to make calls locally and internationally. Thieves steal the cards regularly though, and Hand’s job is to identify these stolen cards, and then to cut their access to the phone network. While this occupies her weekdays, on the weekends she is able to explore her passion for the increasingly popular techno and house music coming out of Detroit and Chicago. So into this music is Hand, that she has even been dabbling in making tracks herself. In a few years from now, this weekend hobby of hers, will have blossomed into a career, under the artist name, K Hand. By the mid to late 90s, Hand will be a renowned producer, and have created tracks such as "Insight".

Episode 10 –Suburban Knight - Infra Red Spectrum

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 08:54:00 -0000

It’s 1980, and James Pennington, who has a passion for music such as electronic funk, is a school student in Belleville, just outside Detroit. Given Pennington’s music interests, it is noteworthy that the school he attends is also where Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson have been students. Atkins, May, and Saunderson, who in the years to come will be referred to by the media as the Belleville Three, are widely recognized as having made significant contributions to the creation of the electronic music genre known as techno. While Pennington is slightly younger, he gets to know the three well, given they are all from the same location, and share music interests. It is thanks to his involvement in this mini community, that Pennington will develop his music production skills. From this, in the coming years his own darker, brooding style of techno will emerge, exemplified in a track such as “Infra Red Spectrum”.

Episode 9 –Blake Baxter - Ghost

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 07:32:00 -0000

It’s the early 1990s, and Blake Baxter, originally from Detroit, is ensconced in the Berlin techno and club scene. Baxter’s relationship with Berlin has been established through his association with one of the city’s most important clubs, Tresor. In being one of Europe’s first techno venues, Tresor has developed an intercontinental relationship with Detroit, the location that many consider to be the birthplace of techno. One aspect of Tresor’s connection with the Motor City, involves their adoption of some of the early Detroit techno producers who have not received quite as much exposure as their better-known peers. Baxter, as one artist who falls into this category, not only djs at the Tresor club, but releases some of his productions through Tresor's record label, including the track, “Ghost”.

Episode 8 –Eddie Fowlkes - Something Special E

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 10:54:00 -0000

It’s 1978, and the mother of local Detroit teenager, Eddie Fowlkes, is insisting that he attends a dance party tonight in order to accompany his sisters who are going. Much of Fowlkes’s attention goes to football at the time, however that will all change after this evening. At this event he encounters a style of music being played, which people refer to as progressive, that captures his imagination due to its one continuous flow from the beginning to the end of the dj’s set. In the near future, this music will inspire Fowlkes, and his peers, to create a new kind of progressive sound, called techno. Fowlkes will end up developing his own version of techno for decades, contributing several genre-defining tracks, such as “Something Special E”.

Episode 7 –E-Dancer - Heavenly

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 10:38:00 -0000

It’s the late 1990s, in a sleepy location called White Lake Township, about twenty miles outside of Detroit’s city limits. Life here is generally quiet, people keep to themselves, and a peaceful tranquility defines the environment. One of the town’s newer residents lives what you might call a typical life here, such as shopping at the local mall, going to the gym, playing basketball with his kids, and going to bed relatively early. What is not so typical about him however, is that he is internationally renowned electronic music producer and dj, Kevin Saunderson. Under the name E-Dancer, Saunderson is releasing tracks, such as "Heavenly", that seem to come from a divine, otherworldly, transcendent source.

Episode 6 –Reese & Santonio - The Sound

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 03:18:50 -0000

It’s 1982, and like many of his peers, Eastern Michigan University football player Kevin Saunderson has dreams of playing in the NFL, regularly talking about how committed he is to achieving this goal. Unlike most football players though, he also has an aptitude for music production. These music interests of Saunderson's soon develop into such a serious pursuit, that they take his attention away from football almost entirely. While his association with college football will here end, Saunderson’s connection with his college days will nevertheless endure, when in the years to come he develops a working musical relationship with a fraternity roommate’s brother. It is from this partnership, that genre-defining techno tracks manifest, such as “The Sound”.

Episode 5 –X-Ray - Let's Go

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 12:32:05 -0000

It’s a Friday evening in Detroit in the mid-1980s, and the Midnight Funk Association, a show hosted by the dj The Electrifying Mojo, is filling the local airwaves. The show is regularly a source of new music for its audience, and during this episode Mojo announces that he is about to play a recently released track called “Let’s Go”, by a little-known Detroit producer called X-Ray. As its pulsing beat flows into the interiors of bedrooms and cars around Detroit, most listeners do not realise the significance of the artists who comprise X-Ray, in that they have already established themselves as two of the originators of techno in Detroit.

Episode 4 –Rhythim Is Rhythim - Strings Of Life

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 04:51:00 -0000

It’s late 1989, and there’s been a lot of recent buzz in Detroit concerning one of its downtown clubs. The Music Institute has been open for a little over a year, boasts an impressive membership count, and is regularly crammed with attendees. Around Detroit it has become known as the place to go if you want to dance until the sun rises. Yet after its next party, the club will be closing permanently. The closing set for this final event at The Music Institute will be the responsibility of one of its regular djs, and local icon, Derrick May. One of the tracks May will end up playing in this set, as he often does during his appearances at the club, is his most famous production as the artist Rhythim is Rhythim, called “Strings of Life”.

Episode 3 –Juan Atkins - Techno Music

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 03:46:44 -0000

During the later years of the 1980s, the term “techno” starts to be used by more fans and artists around Detroit in reference to this relatively new genre of music. It is however with the release of a specific compilation album, which includes Juan Atkins’s song titled “Techno Music”, that audiences in other parts of the United States, and on the other side of the world, become familiarised with the practice of referring to this music in this way. The release of this compilation album, called “Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit”, will likewise prompt the media, especially in England, to give the group of artists from Detroit who are creating this new sound, a collective identity under this term, “techno”.

Episode 2 –Model 500 - No UFO's

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 02:42:04 -0000

It’s 1985, and Juan Atkins has parted ways with his partner in Cybotron, a music group that in the decades to come will be synonymous with the origins of Detroit techno. This split between the pair is due to creative differences, with Atkins the more committed of the duo to maintaining a futuristic, electronic tone in his music. Atkins has since been producing tracks alone under various pseudonyms, as he experiments with the identity for this new genre of electronica that he has been so central in conceiving. It is with one such futuristically titled project, Model 500, that he will develop what for some observers is the first pure techno track.

Episode 1 –Cybotron - Alleys Of Your Mind

Sat, 15 Jul 2023 07:04:32 -0000

It’s the late 1970s in Belleville, a quiet suburb of Detroit about half an hour’s drive from the city centre. Detroit is located on the northern perimeter of the United States, so close to the border in fact that you can see Canada on the other side of the river that runs alongside the city. Detroit is a metropolis on the margins. At the local high school in Belleville there is a student, Juan Atkins, whose passions revolve around music, particularly various forms of electronic and funk music. He even studies a data processing course at school because, as he understands it, you need to be a computer scientist to make music. It is around this time that he also reads a near 500-page length book, titled “This Business Called Music”, to serve his vision of making robotically sounding music and selling it himself. Little does Atkins, or any of his peers, know that after he graduates these interests will contribute to him becoming part of a musical duo called Cybotron, whose innovative sound in early tracks like “Alleys of Your Mind” will contribute to changing the world’s sonic landscapes.