Detroit - the myth

Simon silverdollarcircle

Well-known member
I'm fairly sceptical about the claim that he just nicked stuff. It doesn't really explain why everything (almost) that has his name on it is so good. He's the common factor, and his tracks are generally much superior to those from people he supposedly stole stuff from
 

Leo

Well-known member
I've always wondered if may stopped making tracks because he wanted to go out on top and concentrate in DJin, or if he was struck with anxiety and creative paralysis after receiving unanimous worldwide praise for "strings of life". knowing he'd never top it could have prompted him to become too scared to try.
 

Simon silverdollarcircle

Well-known member
https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/05/interview-derrick-may

This is an interesting (and long) interview with derrick may. I didn't realise before I read it just how much the early days of techno was a upper middle class trendy scene. Hipster kids with a lot of money, mashing together these new dance styles from across the globe...if dissensus had been around then we'd have hated it!;)

"The high school scene was amazing. All the young high school kids would dress really nice. You had guys wearing Polo and Versace, all this kind of ridiculous stuff, in high school. It was amazing how much money these parties were making. People were charging $25 to get in.

Even back then?

I could pull out some old flyers and prove it. 25 bucks, it was seriously like that.

So where were these kids getting their money?

It’s important to keep in mind that Juan, Kevin and myself come from middle class, upper middle class families. Most of the people we associated with were upper middle class to very rich black people"
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/05/interview-derrick-may

This is an interesting (and long) interview with derrick may. I didn't realise before I read it just how much the early days of techno was a upper middle class trendy scene. Hipster kids with a lot of money, mashing together these new dance styles from across the globe...if dissensus had been around then we'd have hated it!;)

"The high school scene was amazing. All the young high school kids would dress really nice. You had guys wearing Polo and Versace, all this kind of ridiculous stuff, in high school. It was amazing how much money these parties were making. People were charging $25 to get in.

Even back then?

I could pull out some old flyers and prove it. 25 bucks, it was seriously like that.

So where were these kids getting their money?

It’s important to keep in mind that Juan, Kevin and myself come from middle class, upper middle class families. Most of the people we associated with were upper middle class to very rich black people"

yeh early techno has more in common with british synthpop than people would like to admit. as soon as it got more radicalised and proletarianised come the second wave and detroit jit, thats when it really gained its own distinctive identity. same with Paradise Garage, new york was pretty middle class and sophisticated as well. It was chicago that was the much more 'urban' crowd.

if you look at a lot of 2nd wave detroit techno it's basically much more influenced by avant-prole jak trax. it's only a step from here to Bobbie Hood.

 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
Strings of life is not really great either tbh.

this is mayday's best. again pretty much directly chicago.

 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Italo was big too. European shit had an air of class to it. They had a party or a club can't remember, called l'uomo.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
if the bourg can always appropriate our shit why can'tt we take their genteel music and make it fit for UK sweatpits? Jay Denham understood this out of detroit.

 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
Italo was big too. European shit had an air of class to it. They had a party or a club can't remember, called l'uomo.

it's funny you mention that. I read an interview with some Italian connoisseur jocks (Mike Simonetti?) who said Italians thought that Italo was total gash, that they wanted to sound like Yaz or the Human League but could not pull it off. let me find it.


We all do that. We are DJs. But DJs from back in the day—I mean Italian DJs—they wouldn't touch Italo records. This one time, I was riding the bus to the airport and the driver saw my record bag. He told me was DJing throughout the '80s and invited me to his place to make trades. When he saw I was interested in Italo stuff he was like, "Are you crazy? That's the shit section of my collection." He said neither he or his DJ friends would play Italian production. They sounded awful and cheap in comparison to UK stuff. And actually they do. It's just that the aesthetics have changed. Back then a bad vocal was just a bad vocal.


https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/78jpee/bottin-and-mike-simonetti-obsess-over-italo-disco
 

luka

Well-known member
tells you everything you need to know about detroit that carl craig has this bruce lee quote on his twitter

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10000 times”
 
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