Detroit Warehouse
Scott moved to Detroit where he discovered the Detroit warehouse party scene that I had been traveling to since 1991, especially for Richie Hawtin's Packard Plant parties.
I moved back to Chicago after my undergraduate years in Southern Indiana at Indiana University, and my roommate and partner in all things philosophical Scott moved to Detroit where he discovered the Detroit warehouse party scene that I had been traveling to since 1991, especially for Richie Hawtin's Packard Plant parties. I even wrote a Cheesy article about going up there for the techno scene for the student newspaper. Hopefully that thing has not been archived somewhere. I was quite proud of how "underground" I was.
We left Bloomington, Indiana in 1995 with our totally useless degrees in Religious Studies and Philosophy. Scott got way more into the Detroit scene than I ever did. While I was going to underground parties in Chicago, he was busy ensconcing himself in all things Detroit. The turning point for him was seeing DJ Bone blowing minds at an abandoned building with stolen electricity "somewhere in Detroit," and then visiting Submerge to spend what very little money he had on Underground Resistance records, which explains the heavy presence of UR on this mix. Thankfully, the first time that he went shopping, Mike Banks was there to help him spend his money right.
For me, it was DJ Hyperactive showing me what to buy at a record store on the Southside of Chicago that I can't remember the name of right now, but it wasn't Gramophone, which is on the Northside and where fellow IU grad Miles Maeda worked. I bought most of my records from Gramophone over the years, but Hyperactive showed me the actual tracks that I had been hearing so many DeeJay's from Chicago and Detroit playing, which included: Jeff Mills, Robert Hood, Juan Atkins, and all of the German techno stuff, mostly Tresor records, that appear on this mix. At Gramophone Josh Werner and Justin Long picked out most of what I bought in the 90s. I once went to a party when I was at IU where Miles Maeda was spinning, and he was playing a lot of Detroit stuff, as did Hyperactive when he spun or made mixtape. I specifically remember hearing Derrick May, Juan Atkins, and Aux 88 for the first time at that IU party, and this taught me that whatever beef there supposedly was between Detroit and Chicago, it wasn't very deep.
1. Convextion, Miranda: This one tickles the brain into a remembrance of forgotten dimensions of the body. This was one of the first records that Mike Banks handed to Scott when he politely asked for some help from the Underground Resistance gentlemen gathered that day at Submerge back in 96.
2. Thomas Barrett, Re-synthesized: Pure UR madness. It builds and builds without a breakdown or a break of any kind. We're just marching the f--- forward into the post-industrial collapse of the the lost future. Get in line or get lost.
3. Psychofuk, Pyschofuk: I really don't know what this is, other than it was one of the records that Mike Banks gave to Scott. Oddly it's on Strictly Rhythm, which is a New York label that isn't associated with this sort of synthesized psychosis. Scott didn't know who Mike Banks was at the time, but he wisely bought whatever Mike put in his hands. Whatever "Psychofuk" is, it is properly named because it has the correct affect that "Hi-Tek" funk should on one's psychology. This is another deep, ecstatic brain tickler that let's you know that there are other, vast realms within reach if one posses the right esoteric technics for calling the far near.
4. Basic Channel, Phylps Track 11/11: Scott and I had a Hyperactive mixtape with it on it, and we use to call it the "Train Song," until Mike Banks, unbeknownst to him, showed Scott what it actually was. German Dub Techno was the perfect combination of groovy and electronic. A synthesizer manipulates and amplifies electricity. Human bodies are run on electro-chemical grooves. German Dub Tech Scientists were able to put electricity into these enchanted kinds of body grooves because of their past experiments with "Electric Body Music" and Dub Reggae. They then ran the whole tincture through an echo chamber, and this is what came out. Play it loudly on a good sound system.
5. Sender Berlin, Sendersuchlauf: Trust the Germans with their electronic dub machines. They understand post industrial collapse and the weird, wonderful noises that it makes. They loop these sounds and run them through strange filters, and then they slam a four on the floor bass apocalypse down, which really ties the room together. You'll love it.
6. Juan Atkins, Session 1: The Originator! German and Detroit have had an uncanny connection from the begging of this electronic music thing. Kraftwerk and Can got electronic noises moving towards body movement in the 70's. And then the Electrifying Mojo introduced Detroiters to both German synth music and Italio-disco in the late 70s / early 80s. Juan Atkins had no idea how his music was being regarded in Europe in the early 80s, but it was regarded and highly so. Germans have enthusiastically followed Detroit's techno output ever since. Juan took a class in high school about "Futurism," and then he bought the proper machinery to create the Future's soundtrack.
7. I think this track is called "One Sparkle" by Fumiya Tanaka: I remember it being on a Tresor compilation of some kind, but I can't find it right now. It sounds like a Jeff Mills track to me. The Japanese loved Detroit techno too, and I love this track's eerie, driving vibe. On the high end, there is like a metallic signal, sort of in the neighborhood of the sound on Mill's "Alarm." It makes me feel like there's a ship lost at sea in a storm ringing its warped, liquid-metal bell for help. But when you get there, its a massive 1950's fly saucer, and it ripples with the aquiferous music of the raging sea, as if it and the sea had always sung like that to each other.
8. Luke Slater (Planetary Assault Systems), Dungeon: I have no idea why Luke Slater called this track "Dungeon," but those are not the vibes that it gives to me, unless we're talking about the famous Tesor club in Berlin that in many ways resembled a dungeon because it was in the basement of what had been a fallout shelter in East Berlin. But Slater is an Englishman from Reading who definitely spun in some pretty dank place, including Tresor. This track sounds like some very esoteric alien creed with those staccato, metallic xylophone loops. And then there are those Kraftwerk Autobahn rushes employing the doppler effect to its proper ends.
9. Sender Berlin, Tragerfrequenz: Yes, twice. I'm just now realizing that I don't really know anything about Sender Berlin, except that they're German and on Tresor's record label, which is how I first heard them. This one is like an accidentally overheard, alien chant. When alien's get together for spell casting, it sounds like bouncing fuzz.
10. Octave One, Eniac: The track is named after the world's first electronic, general-purpose digital computer, and the Burden Brothers of Octave One are the artists. Octave One are a perfect example of Underground Resistance's combining of funk, jazz, and technology. This track sounds like the sort of trains of the future that we were promised but never materialized. Detroit is famous for having a monorail that runs around its downtown, which very few people ever ride because it really doesn't go anywhere useful. It was a particularly odd sight in the 90s before any of the revitalization efforts began in the downtown area. It just continually ran around a decrepit city scape providing a haunting contrast between the Detroit of the past and its seemingly cancelled future.
11. Daniel Bell: Science Fiction. This was a short but very cool phase in Daniel Bell's career in which he made bleep and boop techno. I love the 1960 Sci-fi vibes. Bell takes us to a clandestine laboratory of officially banned but secretly performed experiments with this one. Someone is trying to revivify something awful, and it's working. Just keep turning those knobs and let's see what happens.
12: DHS, House of God (Surgeon remix): I heard Hyperactive playing this one a lot. I had, like most people who grew up on sample-based, electronic music, heard the original and loved it. The "Industrial" music on "Waxtrax," sometimes called "Electric Body Music," and the Italo disco that a lot of Chicago DeeJay's played around the time "House" officially became a thing, were much more influential on House than is sometimes admitted. Italo disco, from when it was first embraced by Chicago on Georgio Moroder's mix of Donna Summer's 1977 "I Feel Love," continued to have a huge presence there long past Chicago's infamous disco demolition. 80s Industrial was comprised of early drum machines, synth loops, and samplers. Its machinic dance beats were overlaid by obscure dialogues and sound effects from b movies.
13. Joey Beltram, Ten Four: Some say that Joey Beltram's "Energy Flash" was the first true techno track. Who can make the final call about such arbitrary things? This track erupts with all the intense, industrial energy that Beltram was known for. It sort of sounds like a cult of clapping monks getting swept up in the enthusiasm of their daily worship service to electrical storms.
14. Jeff Mills, Alarm: The "Wizard" is definitely one of the best to ever do it. This specific warped alarm sound used to make the warehouse dancers giddy with joy. And the shaking tambourine loops got everyone feeling as ecstatic as the Hare Krishna's jumping around with their finger cymbals. I got to see him again a few months ago. He's still the Wizard, but sounds systems aren't what they used to be.
