Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, Derrick May

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Where should I start?

― mohair (jon kapper), Monday, 27 September 2004 18:36 (5 years ago) Permalink

Jeff Mills - Waveform Transmissions, Volume 1 cd, Purposemaker Compilation cd

Carl Craig: buy the Paperclip People - Secret Tapes of Dr. Eich cd and the 69 - The Sound of Music cd

Derrick May - The Innovator 2cd set

bob's your uncle.

― Roy Williams Highlight (diamond), Monday, 27 September 2004 18:44 (5 years ago) Permalink

Derrick May -- Innovator. Memorize the entire thing, because it's the blueprint for Detroit techno.

Jeff Mills -- tough one ... maybe start with an X101 single? He has a lot of albums. "Lifelike" has a great mix of stuff: hard and pounding, classic Detroit, ambient-ish. At some point you must also get his mix CD "Live at the Liquid Room" because it's basically the greatest mix CD ever.

Carl Craig -- Many people would recommend Psyche first, I think. The Innerzone Orchestra album is also a nice change from the usual -- "broken beat"s, very jazzy and loose throughout.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 27 September 2004 18:45 (5 years ago) Permalink

bob who?

― mohair (jon kapper), Monday, 27 September 2004 18:49 (5 years ago) Permalink

How about "Songs about Food..."?

― mohair (jon kapper), Monday, 27 September 2004 18:55 (5 years ago) Permalink

If you can get your hands on Mills' old radio mixes as "the Wizard" they're fucking dope

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Monday, 27 September 2004 18:58 (5 years ago) Permalink

Screw Songs About Food. Get that Paperclip People disc first.

― Roy Williams Highlight (diamond), Monday, 27 September 2004 19:00 (5 years ago) Permalink

i've been searching for another large body of 'rainforest' (fragile, sort of degenerate-sounding synths, intricate polyrhythms, etc) techno like all the Innovator tunes ... any ideas?

― ryan kuo (ryan kuo), Monday, 27 September 2004 19:06 (5 years ago) Permalink

Get Jeff Mills' "Metropolis" soundtrack.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 27 September 2004 19:08 (5 years ago) Permalink

You might also like some of John Beltran's work. He is (was?) on Transmat, his work is lush and filled with intricate (and not necessarily danceable or four-to-the-floor) rhythms. Kind of like Ulrich Schnauss, but from Detroit.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 27 September 2004 19:11 (5 years ago) Permalink

Mills: The Other Day probably is a good entry album (although I like him best circa Waveform Transmission Vol. 3)

With Craig you can start any place really. Although that 69 - Sound of Music compilation has a nice mix of emo-tracks a la 'Desire' and bangers like 'Jam The Box'.

― Omar (Omar), Monday, 27 September 2004 19:18 (5 years ago) Permalink

xpost - thanks!

― ryan kuo (ryan kuo), Monday, 27 September 2004 19:22 (5 years ago) Permalink

i really can't say enough about the incredible awesomeness of carl craig's landcruising album. a concept ablum about travel and modern life (hey, it was original then...) that is basically a 90s detroit techno take on kraftwerk. there's one dud on there but the rest is just georgeous, deep mid-tempo techno. some of the best strings ever i've heard.

― equinox, Monday, 27 September 2004 19:51 (5 years ago) Permalink

Agreed. Just played Landcruising the other day and it has aged really well (probably those 10 years add another layer of melancholy ;) What's the one dud though? 'One Day Soon'?

― Omar (Omar), Monday, 27 September 2004 19:59 (5 years ago) Permalink

someone really needs to do a detroit techno nuggets already

― jess (dubplatestyle), Monday, 27 September 2004 20:01 (5 years ago) Permalink

It would have to be done by someone immune to interpersonal politics -- otherwise we'll get a disc of T-1000 or E"F"F or no UR or whatever. I can't see it happening. (Plus licensing headaches, ow ouch.)

― Andy K (Andy K), Monday, 27 September 2004 20:08 (5 years ago) Permalink

messthetics, then?

― jess (dubplatestyle), Monday, 27 September 2004 20:10 (5 years ago) Permalink

man, i'm gonna do the Detroit Nuggets. that'd be rad

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Monday, 27 September 2004 20:43 (5 years ago) Permalink

Uh, not sure why Songs about Revolutionary Blah Blah Blah is getting a bad rap here but it's a great album. Lancruising might be a touch better but don't miss out on the latter.

― biznotic, Monday, 27 September 2004 21:47 (5 years ago) Permalink

I'd like a Belgian mentasm Nuggets.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 27 September 2004 21:49 (5 years ago) Permalink

i've been searching for another large body of 'rainforest' (fragile, sort of degenerate-sounding synths, intricate polyrhythms, etc) techno like all the Innovator tunes ... any ideas?

- urban tribe's "collapse of modern culture" is the best album ever.

- nurmad jusat's tracks under the names nuron & fugue on the likemind label. hell, all of the likemind label (it's only 4 eps)

- steve pickton's work as stasis on peacefrog (earlier material better) and his ep on mo'wax especially

- early black dog work, and their side projects. balil is the biggie, tura and atypic to a lesser degree. about 1/2 to 2/3 of the "trainer" retrospective fits your description.

- early material on the planet e label. the "intergalactic beats" comp, but also the lesser-known "elements of and experiments with sound" compilation (modeselector, moodring and especially the connection machine are the key artists, i think)

- obviously b12, who made a career out of copying derrick may, and early kirk degiorgio too. i guess the applied rhythmic technology and b12 catalogs.

- david moufang's work as move d

early tracks on the eevo lute muzique label fit the bill too and are highly rated in some circles but i don't think they're all that great.

i'd call the material on the ferox label "Rainforest" in the sense that it's basically artcore techno, though instead of the fragile degenerate synths you had this super-perky ultra-discrete synthwork. that and extra shuffliness makes lots of the ferox catalog fall closer to proto-microhouse, though if you're still interested the "techno soul" compilations and russ gabriel's early-to-mid catalog will probably suit you fine.

um i feel like i should have more to say because this is my favorite kind of music but derrick may is much more sui generis than you'd think. also the recent european detroit techno revival stuff sort of leaves me cold ($tinkworx, arne weinberg, deepart, etc).

there's a thread somewhere on not-west-london broken beat (CiM, the better stuff on delsin, etc) but that's not really like derrick may, it's just coming from a milleu where early-90s uk techno (likemind label, applied rhythmic technology, etc) is ground zero.

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 27 September 2004 22:10 (5 years ago) Permalink

My snide hipster answer would be in the archives.

Mills: You need the every dog has its day records, the other day, and a copy of the purpose maker comp.

May: Innovator

Craig: Psyche/BFC and More Songs... should do the trick.

If I owned a computer I would get off my ass and make a nuggets disc, it has to have nicolette and I believe by Octave One.

― Disco Nihilist (mjt), Monday, 27 September 2004 22:22 (5 years ago) Permalink

carl craig = start with paperclip people's "4 my peepz" ep. listen to the 14 minute long mix of "the climax" until your head explodes.

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 27 September 2004 22:26 (5 years ago) Permalink

you really can't go wrong with carl craig. everything he's put out - ok, maybe excepting innerzone orchestra and the detroit experiment - has it's moments and then some. even innerzone orch and the detroit blablahblah have their moments too - "people make the world go round" and "think twice" are really really REALLY good covers.

derrick may - also easy to answer, like everyone else on this thread the answer is "with everything" ie with "innovator"

jeff mills - really hard to answer!! the liquid room mix or the purposemaker comp. the mix is really like a greatest-hits leavened with other people's stuff (well, all of his dj sets are). the purposemaker comp sort of also, except it is fatally flawed because it doesn't have "changes of life" or "step to enchantment (stringent)".

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 27 September 2004 22:32 (5 years ago) Permalink

innerzone orchestra - bug in the bassbin !!

― tricky disco (disco stu), Monday, 27 September 2004 22:43 (5 years ago) Permalink

For somebody new to Jeff Mills, I feel the Purposemaker comp is way too much of the same thing. And if you're going to cave your head in with way too much of the same thing by Jeff Mills, then it should be the Liquid Room mix.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 27 September 2004 23:13 (5 years ago) Permalink

cheers vahid ^_^

― ryan kuo (ryan kuo), Monday, 27 September 2004 23:44 (5 years ago) Permalink

throw remake uno by paperclip people is soooooo killer.

Nice to see you posting again vahid.

Marcus Nicoli is playing in Hollywood this Wednesday.

sorry for the cross post everyone.

― hector (hector), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 01:48 (5 years ago) Permalink

haha, the jeff mills The Wizard mixes floating around slsk are sick...there's a 1989 one that's just insane

― manuel (manuel), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 04:33 (5 years ago) Permalink

For Jeff Mills, start with the Live at the Liquid Room mix CD

― Robin Goad (rgoad), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 07:41 (5 years ago) Permalink

Another excellent start: Relics, Transmat compilation which features May, Craig and more including classics and exclusive incidental stuff by May. Innovator, 69 comp and Intergalatic Beats are great though

― wtin, Tuesday, 28 September 2004 07:59 (5 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

this website has up some old wizard mixes... definitely something to hear if you haven't heard before.

― lfam, Monday, 26 March 2007 03:13 (3 years ago) Permalink

i hadn't heard them before, only of them. it's something i've been doing at a comparatively lackadaisical pace for a couple years now. mills' style is not really my thing as i like to let the loops run until they break but it's wild!

― lfam, Monday, 26 March 2007 03:18 (3 years ago) Permalink

Another vote for Liquid Room - it rules!

lfam - You rock for posting that link - I've never heard any of his radio stuff before! Thanks!

― Moodles, Monday, 26 March 2007 03:32 (3 years ago) Permalink

Where do Dopplereffekt and Drexciya fit into this whole scene? Like, "second wave" Detroit techno?

― Stevie D, Monday, 26 March 2007 09:21 (3 years ago) Permalink

More electro than techno, perhaps?

― Neil S, Monday, 26 March 2007 11:47 (3 years ago) Permalink

Detroit electro, then, a la ADULT.? Does such a genre exist?

― Stevie D, Monday, 26 March 2007 12:05 (3 years ago) Permalink

Start with X-103.

― moley, Monday, 26 March 2007 12:06 (3 years ago) Permalink

detroit electro is Aux 88, Drexciya, Ectomorph etc. The electro revival started in detroit. Including the Adult. precurser Le Car.

― dan selzer, Monday, 26 March 2007 13:12 (3 years ago) Permalink

I'd add DJ Assault to that list.

― Neil S, Monday, 26 March 2007 13:46 (3 years ago) Permalink

You also have to look into the Interstellar Fugitives comps on UR, as well as UR003 Final Frontier.

Also research Ultradyne/ Pi Gao Movement, DETROIT IN EFFECT, Twlight 76 records, Will Web, Keith Tucker/Optic Nerve/DJ K1, and Posatronix.

And as far getting started with Detroit techno goes, the first thing you need to get is a copy of Deep Space by Model 500. That is imho the most important record that came out of Detroit in the 90's. That album is the masterpiece of Detroit Techno.

― Display Name, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:17 (3 years ago) Permalink

I've been listening to the Wizard mixes and they are amazing! It's like witnessing the birth of Techno as it happened or finding the Missing Link. The tracks are fairly standard hip hop from the 80s with lots of early house, electro and funk mixed in. Yet the way Mills puts it all together, it has the same frenetic vibe as the Liquid Room mixes, which is crazy to me since the tracks on Liquid Room are pure banging Techno. So much Techno has a Germanic (to my ears) vibe to me, so I've always found it hard to imagine how it originated in Detroit. Now it all makes sense to me.

― Moodles, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 04:51 (3 years ago) Permalink

i agree, it is like hearing the missing link. something really special there.

― lfam, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 04:55 (3 years ago) Permalink

even though i had read about the wizard several times, i still couldn't believe my ears when i finally heard these.

― lfam, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 04:58 (3 years ago) Permalink

I don't know if he always does it and everyone's seen it on some cockfarming dvd or something, but watching Mills DJ from behind, when we booked him back in 94, was really unusual. He would throw played records onto a pile on the floor behind him, as they left the turntables like used bullet rounds, only pausing a few times (when he allowed a tune to go over the one-minute mark) to haphazardly stuff a bunch of them into paper sleeves and back in the box.

― blunt, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 05:23 (3 years ago) Permalink

he only needs a bit of clean vinyl from each one!

― lfam, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 05:36 (3 years ago) Permalink

I've been listening to the Wizard mixes and they are amazing!

NO SHIT :-O

also, bit of a strange unremembered nostaliga trip hearing all this fairly popular (all the bits I remember) hip-hop and 80's techno-pop in an of-the-time context, and the mixing is ridiculous.

― fandango, Thursday, 29 March 2007 20:03 (3 years ago) Permalink

just found all of vahid's recommendations in response to the "rainforest techno" question

am very excited

― lukas, Thursday, 29 March 2007 21:00 (3 years ago) Permalink

4 weeks pass...

Tonight here in Chapel Hill:

Techno: A Black American Artform Thursday, April 26
Cabaret: UNC Student Union

Great Hall: UNC Student Union
Techno: A Black American Artform will begin in the Cabaret with a lecture on the origins of techno by techno pioneer Derrick May from 6pm to 7pm. Live techno and DJ performances follow from 8pm to 12am in the Great Hall.

This is part of the Signal electronic music fest all weekend.

More here:

http://www.signalfest.com/newsite/content/view/50/47/

― c@md3n, Thursday, 26 April 2007 15:53 (3 years ago) Permalink

Then he plays a set at 10:30. Anybody seen him perform recently?

c

― c@md3n, Thursday, 26 April 2007 15:55 (3 years ago) Permalink

Still checking out those Wizard mixes. I'm totally baffled by how he mixes it all together. There seems to be so much going on and so many quick changes. It seems to go far beyond standard DJing, even from what I've heard of Jeff Mills' techno mixes. Can anyone out there explain how he manages this?

― Moodles, Thursday, 26 April 2007 16:36 (3 years ago) Permalink

he used a 4 track.

― Display Name, Thursday, 26 April 2007 17:14 (3 years ago) Permalink

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