Dopplereffekt Metasymmetry EP, Der Zyklus 12" Truth Matrix, Drexciya reissues and more

 

Dopplereffekt haver a new four track EP Metasymmetry released on Tresor from 12th December, you can pre-order here.

There is a new Der Zyklus 12" coming soon (already available as a limited white label) called 'Truth Matrix' You can listen and pre-order here.

Clone Records have reissued all four volumes of Drexciya's Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller series with new artwork by Ellen Gallagher. 

Dopplereffekt's live in a film studio 2022 concert for ARTE to coincide with Tresor's 30th anniversary can be watched again on YouTube. 

I would recommend this new interview with Keith Tucker (Aux88/Optic Nerve), he mentions Drexciya and Dopplereffekt quite a few times. From the always excellent Sonic Groove podcast.

Tresor has reissued Drexciya's 'Fusion Flats' 12" EP from 2000 with the original remixes. They have also re-pressed most if not all of their Drexciya catalogue (including a new cassette of Neptune's Lair) so might be easier look at their main Bandcamp link here.

Spain's Tarta Relena have scored a Dopplereffekt remix or a 'Isotopic Filter Re Structure' on their latest release. The original version of 'Mille risposte' can be found their second album És pregunta (2024). Digital only, Bandcamp here.

The Wonky Angle has made an excellent guide to Drexciya side projects at this link. Check out his other Drexciya and Dopplereffekt videos on his channel. 

In other and rather unexpected news, in an online White House memo issued on 21/8/25, 'President Trump Is Right About the Smithsonian', a currently on display art exhibition: 'From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya with Ayana V. Jackson', is included in a list of art works offending to Donald Trump at Washington's Smithsonian. For context you can read a new piece on Axios which includes the information that, '"President Trump will explore all options and avenues to get the Woke out of the Smithsonian and hold them accountable," a White House official told Axios'. I've shared Ayana V. Jackson's inspiring exhibition at the Smithsonian here before and you can find more information about it here. Resident Advisor also picked up on the story here.

Drexciya Day 2025 and more

 

We are about six weeks out from Drexciya Day (Wed 3rd September) so, as ever, if any fans want to organise an event, be it in person or online, please feel free to do so and if you give me the details I will share them here. 

This is a celebration which has grown from fans in 2017 and has existed each year since then in a small and sometimes big way. The dates for events are always flexible, give or take a week, but up to now have coincided as close as possible with the date of James Stinson's death. As many of you know, September is also when Drexciya began as a concept (18th) and suitably even when James Stinson was born (14th). So anytime you want to stage an event in September is good.

If you are looking for ideas, 2025 marks the 30th anniversary since Drexciya made their biggest impact to date with the release of both the Aquatic Invasion EP on UR and The Journey Home EP on Warp. It was also the year of Elecktroids.

Take a look at previous events for ideas.

#drexciyaday2025

There was a Drexciya Day event in Birmingham on 5th Sept

DJ Ironlung on KPFT-FM in Houston, Texas dedicated a radio show to Drexciya on 5th September. Scroll down this link for archived show called Deep Dive (only available for two weeks to stream and download).

On 6th Sept Phil Robertson did a two hour Drexciya themed DJ set livestream. You can view it here.

There will be a Drexciya Day event in Vilnius on 12rh Sept

There will be a Drexciya Day event in Rome on 19th September organised by Giano Electronics 

Clone Records have re-pressed the Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller four volume series with new artwork by Ellen Gallagher. You can see and order them here and elsewhere online (promo text below).

'It comes with new artwork by critically acclaimed American artist Ellen Gallagher, who created a series of paintings titled Watery Ecstatic, inspired by Drexciya’s music—which she discovered while immersed in the mid-'90s New York techno scene.

Now partly based in New York and Rotterdam, the connection was easily made. Her Watery Ecstatic series serves as the inspiration for the covers of this new edition of Journey Of The Deep Sea Dweller, with embossed artwork offering a tactile, physical complement to Drexciya’s immersive sound world.

Drexciya needs no introduction for most—it’s one of the most influential projects in techno history. But for some, this might serve as an entry point into their sonic universe and the broader (Detroit) techno culture. Their music emerged from a harsh environment, and it shows—raw, uncompromising, and boundary-pushing. Drexciya redefined Detroit techno like no one else.

Their unique sound and mythical aesthetic made them a true cult phenomenon. Guided by Mad Mike Banks of Underground Resistance, their early releases were works of art in themselves. Drexciya stands for the darker, deeper edges of techno and electro—not just club music, but a profound extension of the mind and spirit.

Twenty years after the release of Deep Sea Dweller (their debut), and ten years after Grava 4 (their final album), we've released Journey Of The Deep Sea Dweller—an almost complete collection of their early works, remastered from the original tapes.

Since the original releases—on labels like Underground Resistance—had such a strong identity and still stand on their own, this reissue doesn’t aim to recreate that magic. Instead, we’ve stirred up the catalogue, taking the tracks out of their original context to give the ‘in-the-know’ listener a fresh experience, and the new listener a perfect introduction to Drexciya’s sonic universe.

Enjoy the ride!'

There is a Heinrich Muller remix of Elena Sizova's 'Sticky Floor' from her debut album Muza. Bandcamp link here

The next Dopplereffekt live date I am aware of is at '20 Years of Dave Clarke Presents' in Amsterdam on 24th October, details here. 

Latest Clone Reissues, Dopplereffekt live and more

Clone have a slew of new reissues available, including  a 'Colored Marbled Limited' 12' re-press of Sunday Night Live At The Laptop Cafe by The Other People Place, a re-press of Drexciya's 'Black Sea'/'Wavejumper'a blue double vinyl of Lab rat XL, regular black double vinyl of Abstract Thought's a;bum. Check out their main site and Bandcamp pages. 

You can hear an audio preview here of the new Dopplereffekt remix of 'Fear of Programming' by Marcell Dettmann. The 12" of remixes will be available from 14th Feb on Dekmantel.

Dopplereffekt are on the bill for Jazz is Dead! festival in Torino, Italy  on 30-31st May. Also, 20 Years of Dave Clarke Presents at Melkweg, Amsterdam features Dopplereffekt and many more, Fri 24th October.

The recent Dopplereffekt Quantum Paradox EP can now be listened to in full on YouTube on the 'Dopplereffekt - Topic' channel. 

The NFT (plus one-off gold plated 12") version of this EP did sell. I know this wasn't everybody's favourite thing for Dopplereffekt to do. I personally didn't mind but I'm very glad it was easy to get the actual music and photographs etc so that it wasn't a fully exclusive thing. 

In the NFT text, the possibility of future NFT releases like this was raised so hopefully there is more unreleased music and things from their archive to come. Perhaps it might even all manifest as a physical archival release in the future.

'No home is complete without at least one Drexciya album, so why not make it three?'

For those new to the world of Drexciya, there is a three album bundle offer (plus an additional 10% off) over at Bleep. You can pick your own combination and include albums by Drexciya, Elecktroids, Japanese Telecom, Arpanet, Der Zyklus, NRSB-11, Shifted Phases, Transllusion, The Other People Place and other related releases still currently in press.

"When they (Drexciya) eventually came down for an interview (BMG's Crush Collision radio show), we ran James’ voice through some processing, and Gerald showed up with his face painted half white, half black like that episode on the original Star Trek."

-BMG of Ectomorph in a Drexciya tribute he wrote in 2012. I found the episode of Star Trek in question, Let That Be Your Last Battlefield (1969). The story had a racial theme with the two guest characters hating each other as they were black and white on opposite sides but came from the same planet. 

'Spock's comment that "Change is the essential process of all existence" remains one of the most memorable lines of dialogue ever uttered on Star Trek.' This makes me think of a possible interpretation/context for Drexciya's message, 'Don't Be Afraid of Evolution'.  

Adam X has delivered another brilliant Sonic Groove podcast, this time he interviews Daniel Bell. The whole thing is worth a listen but there's a cool story around 40 mins about Daniel showing Adam around Detroit in the mid '90s and bringing him to Buy-Rite where he recommended him getting the Glass Domain 12" (the original pressing, which was still in stock there after about four years). 

There is plenty more about living in and the club life of Detroit, Frankfurt and Berlin and obviously they cover his own life and career (a real education, like eavesdropping on the best conversation). 

He mentions his 7th City Distribution company (1994-'98) but while he doesn't go into it here, I've linked a previous quote in comments where he talked about pressing and distributing all the Dopplereffekt records on Dataphysix.

The Wonky Angle have been reviewing albums by Drexciya, and Dopplereffekt, check out their channel to find these videos. 

One of my readers kindly sent me this review of The Quest from September 1997 issue of Muzik by Tim Barr. I haven't shared it here before.

Dopplereffekt Quantum Paradox EP NFT, Clone Aqualung reissues, Neptune's Lair 25th anniversary edition and more

 

There is a new Dopplereffekt EP, Quantum Paradox, on a revamped Dataphysix. While there is a one-off physical gold 12" record in a pouch with additional "undisclosed material", it is primarily an NFT. The music will also be available digitally in an 'open edition'. There are three unreleased tracks 'Measurement Problem', 'Observer Effect', and 'Infinite Quantum', recorded between 1991 and 1995. 

You can already hear some of the music on a video on TikTok (link below). At another link below it seems it will be possible for anyone to listen to the entire track from Dec 10th. I'm just figuring it all out myself, loads more info at the following links (small section of text below). The main NFT EP goes on auction from 9th December. 

Main info for Quantum Paradox EP

Two short videos with music (I'm not a member of TikTok but they played for me)

Open Edition with links to play music from Dec 10th (if you go into 'View Original Media' you can play the tracks now)

'Fans will have the opportunity to own a piece of music history, with exclusive, previously unreleased tracks recorded between 1991-1995, as well as digital and physical artworks and collectibles that reflect the visionary nature of Donald's and To-Nhan’s work. Retroactive airdrops, as well as physical NFTs and merch, will be considered immediately after the sale of the initial NFTs is concluded.'

'The drops will be deployed under the artists’ very own smart contract, which acts as a revamp of Gerald’s private label Dataphysix. The first release, namely Quantum Paradox EP, is a three-tracker collection showcasing the duo's diverse range in the audible spectrum, always with a hint of sci-fi storytelling and intense scientific and math-inspired sound design.'

'Measurement Problem, Observer Effect, and Infinite Quantum Series will be available in the following formats:

1 x 12” Gold-plated historical collectible record vinyl that includes all three tracks.

Expiring open edition for each digital track individually.

All participants will be eligible for retroactive airdrops, merch, discounts, and accessibility to IRL and metaverse events.'

There's also the first new track in a long while on the Dopplereffekt Bandcamp page. 'Hydrostatic Equilibrium' features a female vocal and is dreamy to the extreme. Hopefully a sign of a new album. It appears the vocalist is Beatrice Ottmann. 

Clone Records have again reissued the Clarence Hyperspace Sound Lab (1991) 12" EP, the Glass Domain self-titled 12" EP and the Der Zyklus' 'Elektronisches Zeitecho' / 'Mathematische Modelle' 12". Some are available on coloured vinyl, check the Clone Aqualung Bandcamp to order. 

There is an excellent 10 minute Dopplereffekt track called 'Quantum Zeno' on XX, the new various artists 2x12" to celebrate 20 years of Spain's Apnea label. Last year this label reissued the Gedankenexperiment EP (Heinrich Mueller & Beta Evers) from 2011 on vinyl. You can order it on vinyl and digital on Bandcamp.

As far as I know the track was previously only available digitally during the fundraiser for 'The Book of Drexciya Vol. 2'. It was then called 'Ascension of Genetic Intelligence'.

There is a 25 year anniversary grey/white 2x12" edition of Drexciya's Neptune's Lair on Tresor. See their Bandcamp for details. 

One of my readers sent me some great music by Roy Ayers and it sent me searching for any connections or references to Drexciya. I discovered in a Pitchfork review a mention of 'Everybody Loves' (1976) in relation to 'Sunrays' by The Other People Place and they are spot on, James Stinson must have been a fan (he did speak about being into jazz). 

'The album ends on a hopeful note though. “Sunrays”—with its bubbling melody, placid ticks and a female voice whispering “relax your mind/slowly unwind”—sounds like Roy Ayers’ “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” for the new century. It’s a warm sunbeam that can best be felt away from a laptop screen.'

One of my readers did a really great job locating and uploading the recording of Dopplereffekt's first live show in Dublin (Sugar Club 5/7/08). A 22 minute section was later broadcast on Dave Clarke's White Noise radio show. It's a great performance and you can hear Dave's introduction and he talks again at the end as well. 

Glasgow's Nighwave had a Drexciya Special for Drexciya Day 2024. You can listen here.

I made (another) Drexciya Special for my Time Travel show on Dublin Digital Radio. After a few years my previously archived special from 2018 disappeared when it fell foul to Mixcloud's more recent policy of not allowing a certain amount of tracks from the same artist. This time I've tried to outfox it by delving into other projects such as The Other People Place, Abstract Thought, Elecktroids, Transllusion, Jack Peoples, Shifted Phases and Lab Rat XL.

Drexciya Day 2024 and more

 

We are about a month out from Drexciya Day (Tues 3rd September) so, as ever, if any fans want to organise an event, be it in person or online, please feel free to do so and if you give me the details I will share them here. 

Liverpool 30th August, Kazimier Garden 6pm til late FB details

Weimar 3rd Sept at C.'Keller FB details

Brussels 6th Sept FB invite/at Cafe Central from 9pm

Birmingham 7th Sept FB invite/Online invite/at Pan Pan venue from 7pm

On 3rd Sept there was a Drexciya special on Nightwave on Glasgow radio station Buena Vida, archived here.

This is something which has grown from fans since 2017 and has existed ever since in a small and sometimes big way. The dates for events are always flexible, give or take a week, but up to now have coincided as close as possible with the date of James Stinson's death. As many of you know however, September is also when Drexciya began as a concept (18th) and suitably even when James Stinson was born (14th). So anytime you want to stage an event in September is good!

Take a look at links in comments with previous events for ideas.

#drexciyaday2024

Gerald Donald (and others) played a show as Daughter Produkt at City Club Augsburg, Germany  on Friday 26th July. It was part of the Water and Sound festival. 

Patrick Wacher of Australian now San Francisco based label Southern Outpost kindly got in touch about the Source Code EP from 2003 which they dedicated to James Stinson.

'This record was our 6th release on the label. The whole record was our small dedication to James Stinson as he passed the prior year. In general, the whole label is/was greatly influenced by Detroit Techno/Electro, specifically the music and ethos of UR & Drexciya. This ep was produced by Sofie Loizou (ShapeShiftr), Phil Chan (Kloc) and myself (The Sentinel) in Sofies studio. This came about after a previous trip to Detroit (one of many back in those days!) catching up with Mike Banks and the Submerge crew. If memory serves me, at this time the label was being distributed by Submerge, just before we moved it across to Clone. Mike had actually given me an obituary program from James’ funeral, which I still have and keep safe.

One small secret is that we were in very early discussions with James to potentially release an ep on Southern Outpost, but it never came to be due to his passing.'

This makes three labels we now know of that James Stinson was in touch with not long before he died about potentially having a future release. It's interesting to imagine what these records would have been like and know that he would have continued to wave-jump and evolve into different scenes around the world. The other labels were Digital Soul (UK) and Isophlux (Miami). 

I also liked the story told on the Discogs site for Outpost, 'whilst Patrick was visiting the old Submerge building at 2030 Grand River Ave, he signed the wall (as all visitors were asked to do) with a personal message to the Submerge crew. It was signed "much respect from the southern outpost". On seeing this, Mad Mike Banks said, "That would be a great name for your record label"... That's where it started.'

Southern Outpost still exist and you can check out their back catalogue via their Bandcamp.

Helena Hauff talks about how she got into Drexciya (3 mins in) and more in this very entertaining new podcast from Tresor Berlin. She has also recently made a great new Tresor Berlin themed mix for Carhartt Work In Progress. She starts it off with Drexciya's 'Intro: Temple Of Dos De Aqua' and also includes 'Scattering Pulsars' by Shifted Phases. 

A downloadable tribute to James Stinson was brought to my attention. It's said to date from not long after he died and the ten tracks were anonymous contributions from various producers. The website no longer works but can be accessed to some degree here (image below).

Dopplereffekt - Gesamtkunstwerk reissue, Datashader remix and more

Dopplereffekt's legendary 1999 compilation of early EPs, Gesamtksunstwerk, is getting yet another reissue on double cream and black vinyl editions from Clone Classic Cuts (due 20/5/24). You can order it from the Clone shop or Bandcamp as well as other retailers. They have great new sharpened images of the personnel headshots on the label artwork.  

You can now order Digital Entropy by Datashader from Tresor. The 12" and digital feature Dopplereffekt's 'Gravitational Remodel' of 'Breath Controller' (now available to preview in full on Bandcamp). 

You can listen to Dopplereffekt's recent live set for Austria's Donau festival here.

The short film, Somewhere in Detroit, made by Roland about Underground Resistance and Submerge and everything they do is now available to watch (12 mins). There are some very good interviews with Mike Banks and his sister Bridgette, Cornelius Harris and many more. Drexciya get a very cool name check from Mike too. There is a very good and useful expanded text version for the film here.

One of my readers, DJ and producer Mark Turner got in touch to point out, 'Originally the sales were pretty low on the Drexciya (Elektroids/Journey Home) projects on Warp, that's why they became high value items in the 2nd hand market, plus they didn't actually do the A+R for those releases, a friend did, he was the one who pushed for them to be on Warp.' This is an excellent 2017 interview with Turner where he talks extensively about DJing at legendary Leeds techno club The Orbit and much more. 

Very cool to see this new video of Drexciya's 'Aquabahn' (1994) pitched-up and played on the street of Detroit and people breaking out their Jit moves on the sidewalk. 

Rob Lawrence, one of DRL's readers, gave this new info about how he first got to here The Other People Place's Lifestyles of the Laptop Cafe.

'Sometime in the summer of 2001 (August 2nd) I went to a playback of the Aphex album Drukqs at the London Planetarium, which obviously in itself was pretty f-ing cool....

Anyway, following this, in a nearby boozer, was a little after show drinks party put on by the label. During the course of the evening they played other forthcoming Warp Records releases, one of which immediately caught the attention of my ears, namely The Other People Place. I got chatting with one of the dudes from Warp and he told me this was one of the last releases that Rob Mitchell, one of the founding members of Warp who sadly passed away earlier that year, had signed to the label, Warp was starting to move in different directions at this point but he was adamant that this should be on the label even if it wasn't quite on trend....Thank you Rob, and Thank you James.'

Rob Mitchell actually died from cancer two months later on 8th October but it's good to learn he was involved with the album and so adamant it would be released. Previously, Sean Booth of Autechre has talked about how he first introduced Mitchell to the music of Drexciya in '93. TOPP's album was released on 3rd Sept and Drukqs followed on 22nd Oct (weirdly, in between these dates 9/11 happened).

Following on from a reader my request for US retailers who stock Drexciya and related projects such as Dopplereffekt, Arpanet, Abstract Thought, Shifted Phases, Transllusion etc, Seattle's Further Records came to my attention. In the US, they have the biggest selection I've seen so far for all these groups and more that US customers could order from and not be hit with large postage fees from Europe. Doing my bit to help. 

Dopplereffekt - Infinite Tetraspace EP, Arpanet Biometry reissue and more

 

There is a new four track Dopplereffekt EP Infinite Tetraspace on Italy's Curtis Electronix due on 1st March. You can pre-order and sample all four tracks on clone.nl, Bandcamp and more. 

Also in March 2024 there is double vinyl re-press of Biometry (2004) by Der Zyklys on Clone Records' Aqualung label. It was last re-pressed in 2015 (for the first time), a sign I suppose of new fans getting into his forever fresh sounding music, no more so than on this futuristic album. Bandcamp link up now.

There is a new Dopplereffekt remodel included on Digital Entropy by Sheffield's Datashader on Tresor Berlin. You can pre-order the vinyl and digital now on BC and elsewhere online. 

You can now get the It's Amazing EP by Lucie Antunes on Bandcamp (digital only). Its been available since last August but only now on BC. It includes a remix by Dopplereffekt.

Dopplereffekt will be appearing at Houghton Festival, Norfolk, England, which runs from 8th-11th August. Full details here. They also have a gig in Paris on 30th March and at Tresor, Berlin on 26th April .

Arpanet play live at Portugal's Waking Life Festival, which runs from 19th-24th June 2024. Full details here.

You can now purchase on 12" vinyl and digital the The Exaltics' Das Heise Experiment - The Remixes on the Solar One Music Bandcamp. It includes Arpanet's 'Helium Shell Remodel' of 'Zwoelf'.

'The mutant fishmen are back'

I noticed a Drexciya - Digital Tsunami EP press release/info sheet I hadn't seen or archived here before was shared online. I've cropped it to make it readable. While there doesn't seem to be anything directly from the group in the text, written by UK promo company ePM, it's good to know the exact release date (16/12/01) and interesting to see how they were being marketed by Tresor Berlin at the time.

One of the best things about doing DRL has been finding pieces of forgotten or not widely known information or in some cases a whole website, World Techno Nation (circa 2001). Stewart Caig was in touch to say he ran this website. He also ran the UK label Digital Soul which had another Drexciya connection. Before social media, Wikipedia, You Tube and Discogs these fan run websites and forums etc were an essential part of various underground music scenes, especially for Techno.

These Wayback Machine links will take you there

Drexciya biog and discography

Ultradyne and Dopplereffekt live in Detroit 2001 review and Ultradyne interview (more info below)

General Interviews

General Menu

I was looking at the old website for World Techno Nation on the Wayback Machine and one of the most interesting things they had was a review of the Ultradyne and Dopplereffekt show at Eyes Only, Liberal Arts Gallery, Detroit during the DEMF in 2001, which I have written about before. This would have been a very early gig for Dopplereffekt and it seems to have been just Gerald Donald on stage. In the pic (below) you can see the flags from Dopplereffekt's set still up when Ultradyne play. On the same page there is also a good interview with Ultradyne. Nice to find this piece of history.

BMG aka Brendan M Gillen of Ectomorph's 2012 piece on Drexciya for Beatportal is no longer accessible but you can still read it on Wayback Machine here.

The Detroit music journalist Dan Sicko's research material has long been held at the University of Michigan since his death. I've known there was tape with a Drexciya interview but didn't know the details until now. It's just over 12 mins long and most likely dates from 1997. I think the quotes were used in his Techno Rebels book and quite possibly Techno: The Rough Guide by Tim Barr (Sicko wrote a few of the entries). You can request the tape in person or listen online if connected to the campus network (for students and staff only). Text for tape below:

'[Side 1], Undated

(First Interview with musician of afrofuturist techno duo, Drexciya. discussion of influences, history and music. Discussion of album The Quest (1997) and others; Second Interview with Adam Sherburne musician of Consolidated regarding current issues in band and music direction. First Interview 0-12:38; Second Interview 12:40-end of tape)

[Side 2], Undated

(Interview with former Kraftwerk musician, Florian Schneider at Electric Music Studios. Discussion regarding his solo career, and working with Kraftwerk.)'

This video gives you a glimpse of the HOPE exhibition at Italy's Museion. At 2min 30sec there is the section introduced by DeForrest Brown Jr with music by Drexciya and his part of the show can be seen. 

You can hear Zwischenwelt's 'Materialisation' (2011) used underneath 'Coven of the Dead' (2021) by German Death Metal band Crypts (the beginning is best place to hear). It's actually a brilliant combination. Bandcamp for Crypts' album of the same name.