Drexciya Day 2023

 

‘A date for your diaries. A unique central London Drexciya event is soon to be announced for Friday 3rd November’. I have been allowed to share this much and while this event is happening outside of the Drexciya Day period, I thought it belonged here, more info soon. EDIT: It will be Dopplereffekt live with special guests at the British Library, full details here. 

There will be a Drexciya Day event in Rome on Sat 2nd September, I will put up a link when I have it but for now they say this. 'This time for the annual meeting we have been doing since 2017 to remember the disappearance of James Stinson/Drexciya we change space and from Spin with Fabrizio Rega we move to Forte Antenna. At the time it was 15 years old and every year it seems more for the depth of the music that has left us, one of the greatest expressions of Techno Detroit has given us and that today seems even more unreachable. Forte Antenne has given us the opportunity to celebrate it in the Forte Court from 19.00 to 5.00. Paolo Monti aka T/Error, Alessio Qu Er Vernuccio aka Akkaelle, Bob Arctor and the Giano Electronics crew will be there. If you’re in the area come on by! More info soon.'

Clone Records have announced the reissue of Grava 4, Jack Peoples EP, Abstract Thought EP and the Transllusion EP for the first week of September, bang in the middle of the Drexciya Day period.

The 21st anniversary of James Stinson's death will be in about six weeks time, 3rd September. Since 2017 fans around the world have been celebrating his music on or around this date on what has become known as 'Drexciya Day'. 

As ever there is no pressure from DRL as this concept originally happened spontaneously and I simply remind people about it and promote whatever anyone feels like doing that year. Previously fans have organised DJ nights, radio shows and online events. The former have ranged from a small get together in a bar or café to larger events.

If anyone wants to organise something please let me know and I will be very happy to share it at the top of this post and on the DRL FB page. Email or contact me through the DRL FB page with an FB event link or whatever. Please use #drexciyaday2023 for your events. 

Thanks

 

Heinrich Mueller - False Vacuum Vol. 2

WeMe Records have announced a second collection of Heinrich Mueller remixes/remodels False Vacuum Vol. 2. This time they have selected thirteen of these rare tracks, three of which will be on vinyl for the first time. It will be available from 17th September. You can pre-order a 2LP turquoise coloured vinyl now from WeMe only.

It is also available now to pre-order on regular black 2LP from places like Clone and Juno. It's really great to see a second volume of these being made available and it's something I've been keen to see happen for a long time. To help out I nominated some of the remixes and wrote the promo text as well (below). You can listen to samples of all the tracks at the link above. I've updated the Heinrich Mueller remix/remodel list at this link too, so you can see what is still uncollected on these compilations (ripe for volume 3).

'Its been five years since Belgium’s WeMe Records lovingly selected the first ever collection of Heinrich Mueller’s (Drexciya/Doppleffekt) best remixes/remodels for a new generation of listeners that won’t have to pay collector prices to have them on vinyl. Volume 2 of False Vacuum is now with us and still has riches to choose from. These 13 rare and hard to find tracks (3 of which make their vinyl debut) all deliver in different ways as he systematically reinvents each one.

Beginning with his raw and now classic remix of Ultradyne’s ‘Clones’, the hard-edged dance-floor friendly ‘Woman’s Scent’ by Cisco Ferreira (The Advent), the more laidback and futuristic sounding ‘Bohrium 274’ by Jauzas the Shining and Victoria Lukas, the slow and mysterious and first time on vinyl ‘Somehow’ by Rough Days For Diamond Trade, reinventing the darkest of dance-floors on ‘Rytumtraks 0002’ by Albert van Abbe, the moody masterpiece and first time on vinyl ‘Now We Continue’ by White Car, Duplex’s ‘Autoslug’ sounding like its been rearranged inside a black-hole, a balancing act between the light and darkness on Fasenuova ‘Cachito Turulo’, an insistent rise and falling workout for As One’s ‘Where Did He Go and Why’, a tightly wound and almost meditative ‘The Truth’ by The Exaltics, an angular stomping march of the robots ‘Longwang’ by 6D22, a jumpy fidgety groove for first time on vinyl ‘Forty Eight Hours’ by Yan Wagner and perhaps one of his most sublime pieces is kept for last with ‘So Long For A Small Storm’ by Dollska.'

New James Stinson pic, L.A.M., Clarence & Glass Domain reissues, Arpanet & Dopplereffekt live and more

One of my readers kindly let me know they had shared a Submerge distribution catalogue from 1994 on their Instagram and FB accounts. I gave it a quick look (quite small online) and wondered who was in the UR photo. I checked the full-size image and recognised a very rare sighting of James Stinson, referred to in the text as '1 Militant Sea Dweller'.

The manoeuvres UR were on would most likely have been their trip to New York's New Music Seminar in 1991 or perhaps '92 (when UR played live). In the 2017 Red Bull Music about this legendary first visit (where they all wore UR T-shirts) both Terrence Parker and Agent X were definitely there. If this is correct it's interesting to know that James was part of the crew from even before Drexciya's debut Deep Sea Dweller EP was released or certainly by '92 (which obviously 'sea dweller' references).

This was a hugely important event for UR to make their mark on the industry and it's even when they met people from Tresor for the first time (at '91 event). As you can see they all look like they were having a great time. 

Please look for similar stuff in your collections!

Clone Records have re-pressed the full trilogy of pre-Drexciya releases. Clarence's Hyperpace Sound Lab 12" EP, Life After Mutation's Balance of Terror 12" EP and Glass Domain's s/t titled 12" EP. They are all available now from clone.nl and all good record stores

There is a free Arpanet show in Paris on 16th July. It is part of a Post-Web conference. You have to RSVP them, more details here and it says 'futuristic/cosmic/cybernetic costumes encouraged'.

Dopplereffekt play Bristol at a festival on 30th September.

This is a really good and brand new James Stinson and Gerald Donald mix by Phil Lucas. He also wrote a text to go with it, some of which is below, enjoy. 

One of my readers tipped me off to this excellent remix of Dopplereffekt's 'Satellites' by Glasgow's Fear-E. It's also make your own price/free if you want to download from Bandcamp.

Clone Records are celebrating 31 years and will be releasing a new boxset compilation Sonic Transmutations. It's quite a line-up and well done to them. From a DRL perspective, Dopplereffekt rarity 'Dyson Sphere' is included. It was last seen on vinyl in 2012 on an obscure Spanish festival compilation. You can sample all the tracks from the comp at this link.

The All Trades and Prieste5s collaborative EP is now available. They won a contest run by Brighter Sound to tie in with Drexciya Day in Manchester last year. As well as digital there is a limited run 12" dubplate w/ A3 Artwork by Abu Qadim Haqq on Bandcamp.

Ayana V. Jackson has a new Drexciya inspired art show on at Washington's Smithsonian from now until 29th Jan 2024. This is the second stage of her project, From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya, that I've shared and I continue to be in awe of the lengths she has gone to realise her vision.

A fan has made an AI generated animated extension of the cover of The Other People Place's Lifestyles of the Laptop Cafe on YouTube. If you've ever wanted to hear and see more of that forest and see what might be in that room then enjoy the ride. Look out for the Drexciya logo, I missed it the first time I watched. This now iconic artwork was created by The Designers Republic and released on Warp Records in 2001.

I wrote a review of A Sphere of Water Orbiting a Star by The Otolith Group at Galway Arts Centre that you can read at this link (exhibition runs until 1st July). The show is very much inspired and informed by Drexciya and the voice of Gerald Donald is featured in both films. The subject of their origin story and more is raised. Well worth a visit if you can, if not I hope the review can suffice.

'Drexciya's Aquatic Invasion was one of the first records Koreman purchased, he told Resident Advisor, and he tried repeatedly to commission a remix from members James Stinson and Gerald Donald in the late '90s, with no success. After a few conversations with Mike Banks, Koreman received a message on his answering machine saying, "Drexciya don't have no phone, but they are too busy to do your remix." '

Back in 2017 Drvg Cvltvre released a 12" EP H-World: Recolonization that was inspired by Drexciya. I did share it here on the DRL FB page at the time but not this part of the article for Resident Advisor. There are still copies in stock at clone.nl too.