Drexciya?

"who is the drexciyan deepchord???"

redshape?

the netherlands.

the whole country?? tracklist pls.

a1. The Hague
b1. Rotterdam

new heinrich muller mix on RA

v. sci-fi, I'm 15 minutes in and enjoying it

So, is there actually any way to acquire "The Quest" without either paying crazy money for it or DLing it illegally? Are there any chances of it being reissued in the future?

Is The Quest that long out of print? I didn't realize that... I've had my copy for a long time, I suppose. Anyhow, painfully, amazingly classic stuff. I love the side-projects as well. I named my first cat Drexciya.

The cheapest used (cd) copy of it I could find on sale on the net is over 70 euros, so yeah, it's definitely in need of a reissue.

There's a copy on ebay which isn't that mad money at the moment. I named my cat heinrich mueller.

There is? Could you maybe provide a link to the EBay page, I can't find it...

i just realised that they seem to be sending to the uk only :/ - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Drexciya-Quest-double-CD-Rare-Detroit-Techno-/110729525835

Oh dear, that's that then...

Hello.

http://www.factmag.com/2011/09/01/drexciyas-early-releases-to-be-reissued/

“We will re-issue the early Drexciya catalogue on Clone. We are currently busy restoring the original master tapes, and hopefully we have the first one ready before the end of the year! Of course we will keep you updated on the process.”

Oh, this is great news!

this is on spotify

don't think this is

http://www.discogs.com/Clarence-Hyperspace-Sound-Lab/release/249283

l o v e l y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMbK631xevU

The Transllusion album is so good

The Jack Peoples release is lovely. Much more similar to The Other People Place than Drexciya

i bought an aqua colored water pipe

i have decided to call it dr blowfin's aquabong

The Transllusion album is so good

― brimstead, Monday, November 23, 2015 1:26 AM (two years ago)

This has just been released and it's great: Transllusion - A Moment Of Insanity.

It's pretty decent but one of their weaker releases for me. Still, Drexciya's weaker material is better than 99% of all the techno and electro out there

Drexciya? Isn't that the name of that famous shemale pornstar? I didn't know (s)he made records. But the "Drexciyan race" references would explain all 'hir' extra...appendages.
― Lord Custos, Sunday, 17 February 2002 01:00 (sixteen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Whaaaaaa

If any London-based Drexciya fans are at a loose end this evening, I'll be playing Stinson/Donald tracks all night at the Pretty Decent Beer Co in Forest Gate from 7pm to mark 16 years since James Stinson passed away.

Full details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1456385964491851/

awesome!

https://www.nts.live/shows/guests/episodes/further-research-gerald-donald-15th-november-2016

Super keen to get a reissued copy of Neptune's Lair on vinyl, but am really not feeling the new artwork:

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2426464864_16.jpg

I wonder why they didn't just keep the colourful original? Will there even be a Drexciyan Cruiser on the flip? :/

https://i.discogs.com/3r9oawa7UvEN3gRqME_r-v5McdedJ8rbyyEYzoJWxLo/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:596/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEzODY2/LTE1NDE0MzA3ODct/NzM3MC5qcGVn.jpeg

Had no idea this was being reissued. Agree about the new cover art but honestly I'd buy a reissue of this if it came in a recycled Frampton Comes Alive sleeve

Maybe there's a legitimate explanation for the new artwork, but it seems like such a disservice to the material, I feel borderline offense. I really hope it wasn't based on an impression that the absolutely perfect afro-futurist comic book stylings were somewhat lacking.

But yeah, will still probably get a copy. It's such a classic.

tresor is reissuing all of the drexciya albums and singles that came out on tresor, including transllusion and shifted phases

they’ve repressed neptunes lair many times since it came out and never fucked with the art, but for this new set of reissues they are redoing the art on *all* of them, not just neptune’s lair (which is the only abdul haqq one)

the art is actually a photo of a sculpture by a detroit based artist

seems like you are making some assumptions here

actually hydro doorways 12” had a big sticker of a drexciyan cruiser on the sleeve so that’s another abdul haqq

since the art on all of them is going to be by the same sculptor / photographer / graphic designer team, i assume the simple explanation is that tresor wanted a unified look for the reissues.

there are ppl buying drexciya records rn who were born after stinson died, this might help them understand that transllusion and shifted phases are drexciya, etc

the art is actually a photo of a sculpture by a detroit based artist

Well, this certainly helps explain the decision. Perhaps I did need to do some deeper digging on the reissue project! I am interested to be fair with what the actual physical versions of this reissue will look like, rather than the images that I've seen in circulation online.

(Plus, I could just track down a secondhand copy of the older version I suppose.)

it was reissued in 2010, 2014 and 2018. there are close to 30 copies up on discogs rn but they are going for $50 and up, which is really bizarre to me. tbf a lot of them are sealed or basically unplayed, and i paid something like $45 for the new 2 x 12” when it was reissued in 2018. still, those prices don’t seem to match reality, kinda like how people were selling 2020 reissues of homework after daft punk broke up for $100, even though it’s been reissued every few years like clockwork

Yeah, I've been keeping an eye on it for a couple of years on Discogs. Bleep had a copy listed for a while online, but I was too slow to move on it. So when I saw these new reissues come up on my feeds, I was looking forward to finally grabbing one.

I mean, for sure it makes sense to release an anniversary redesign - I take back the melodramatic impression that of taking *offense* lol - but the original artwork for Neptune's Lair is just so dope.

fwiw i prefer the original art myself. the new art looks, idk, kinda bleak and industrial, bit “tresor by numbers” maybe.

Did I dream that there was some announcement recently about an upcoming academic-type book tying Drexciya's music with Afrofuturism and the like? I can't seem to locate its existence anywhere, all that turns up on Google and Amazon when I search for Drexciya books are the graphic novels. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

The one that I've seen discussed Abdul Qadim Haqq's book. It is a graphic novel though I think.

You might be thinking of DeForrest Brown's Assembling A Black Counter Culture, which is an in-depth history and analysis of Detroit techno with, obviously, a lot of discussion of Drexciya. I have it; it's good.

Get it here if you're interested.

That's the one! Thank you!

Deforrest Brown was in town here in Galway over the weekend doing a talk about Techno tied in with an exhibition by the Otolith group who were represented by both Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Saga. Their exhibition is influenced by Drexciya who I'm just discovering in the Spotify representation. I just grabbed the 2 album cds from Tresor which look like they contain the e.p.s too. I think I may have read about the band years ago, possibly in the pieces by Kodwo Eshun in the Wire but haven't been continually conscious of them since. The mythos behind the band seems really interesting. The exhibition helps illustrate a bit of that. Film of a really animated seeming sea for one thing
https://www.galwayartscentre.ie/whats-on/the-otolith-group/

Deforrest Brown was saying something negative about the Tresor reissues that I am trying to remember . May have just been about the sleeve redesigns. I know he had said something about the images that should have been on the Quest's sleeve which had been intended to show levels of diaspora I think and were replaced by another image.
The Galway Arts Centre has started accompanying the exhibitions with a set of books being displayed on a table in the front room. This week these included Deforrest Brown's book and teh Drexciya graphic novel and a couple of things by Paul Gilroy.
I'm really hoping that I will get a chance to read all of those. Also need to see if I do actually have a copy of Gilroy's Black Atlantic which I may have bought years ago and lost into a pile somewhere. Need to read more Gilroy anyway.

I think Deforrest Brown's book is a history of Techno centred on black creativity. It looks pretty thick , like its 400 odd pages or so .
The Drexciya graphic novel thing would be Abdul Qadim Haqq's book

“the quest” is a compilation of tracks from early eps on submerge, which was never issued by tresor (it was on submerge) and has not been reissued by tresor

those tracks were remastered by alden tyrell and reissued by rush hour as the “journey of the deep sea dweller” vols 1-4 set, but they were not reissued as “the quest”

maybe they were talking about something else, probably not worth struggling to recollect their opinions about sleeve art

also it’s worth noting that it’s not unusual for tresor to update the art when they reissues, particularly when the tracklist is changed. just off the top of my head, they changed the artwork for dj shufflemaster, regis + female, james ruskin. they did not change the art for rob hood’s “waveform transmission vol. 2” or atkin’s “jazz is the teacher”, but they also didn’t do anything to the tracklist or any remastering, so i think those count as represses vs reissues. it would be fair i think to say that not devaluing the original is a consideration in that cultural space in a way that may not be true for, say, jazz or rock reissues (possibly because they hold their value better?)

Talk may reappear on the gallery website. I know that Deforrest Brown was saying that the original sleeve design for the Quest wasn't the one used. But I also think he said something negative about the Tresor reissues can't think what if it wasn't about the sleeve art. Looking at the original sleeve art it does seem a shame but would be good if it was reprinted somewhere else if it hasn't already been. Is the artist Abdul Qadim Haqq who I think was used for the design of Assembling A Black Counterculture.I haven't had a chance to see what the contents of the graphic novel are and how close they get to any of the sleeve designs.

I was trying to work out if there was an overlap between contents of those 4 compilations and elsewhere.
Well do have the 2 album length Tresor sets on their way and can work out what else I need from there. Was in 2 minds cos I'm pretty broke but it did say very limited copies left. So wasn't sure if that was permanent. & I was thinking after listening to their stuff that I wanted copies.

i have to say, i think it’s in poor taste for these guys to be criticizing tresor, who are actually paying money to stinson’s family *and* to a young black artist from detroit whose work is about technology and diaspora

meanwhile kodwo eshun is … hawking an art installation “inspired by drexciya” that includes audio recordings of his interviews with stinson. and the guy who used abdul haqq’s art for his book is … upset that abdul haqq’s art has been replaced by … the work of a young black artist from detroit who is focused on technology and diaspora

are we sure this isn’t just about who is and isn’t getting over on the legacy of the dead detroit techno genius?

I'll wait until I can rehear the talk before fully knowing.

Trying to remember what the negative thing Brown said was, & now rethinking maybe it was that the price of anything by the band had become exorbitant, massively so until the Tresor reissues. So it wasn't about the Tresor reissues themselves but the general situation before they appeared. Still need to see if the recording appears. I know he did say that the Quest sleeve wasn't the same as it had originally been designed and I think he said something about the artwork being replaced not being ideal.
Was saying that he had had to pay hundreds for material by the band.

hmm well that's definitely a more relatable gripe. my assumption may have been particularly believable (for me anyway) because i've heard so much griping over the years from different corners around how drexciya releases are handled. and that's not just with this latest tresor batch, but also the older rush hour and clone reissues, submerge and rephlex's unwillingness to reissue various things, how warp handles other people place and elecktroids, etc etc etc

i get it, drexcicya's music has been life changing for me and continues to be life affirming ... but man some ppl can be weirdly possessive about it

finally got the reissue of the Shifted Phases LP, pretty much the last Stinson/Donald thing I was missing
Lonely Journey of the Comet Bopp is one of the most beautiful things they ever recorded, gets me every time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx7fICVg6kA

Waiting for my copy to arrive but always thought this album was one of the greatest Drexciya things

I ordered the cds about 31/2 weeks ago and got them about 2 or something weeks ago. Seriously enjoying what i'm hearing of the one that i have played so far. Looking forward to getting something I can hear things on better.
BUt deeply surprised that if when I got the 2 full lengths there were 6 copies left there are now 4 and 5 of them left. Would think they'd sell out. Or alternatively if they have a further supply have a higher number of them available.