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.

Drexciya catalogue Spotify playlist and more

Clone, Tresor and Warp have combined their Drexciya catalogues to create a 144 song playlist on Spotify. It includes music by Drexciya, Transllusion, The Other People Place, Abstract Thought, Shifted Phases and Lab Rat XL. It feels like an historic moment to see them all together like this (total play time is 9hrs 30 mins). The only album that's missing is Transllusion's L.I.F.E (hope this gets reissued someday soon). If you have Spotify it can be accessed here (if you don't you can still see the list).

Dopplereffekt created a new various artist mix for Different Sound.

There is a new Arpanet remix on box set reissue of Das Heise Experiment by The Exaltics. Bandcamp link here.

A fan video of Dopplereffekt at British Library. 

A new Drexciya centred radio show by Crix Madine. 

Be sure to check out the DRL FB page for daily posts. 

NRSB-11 Commodified and self-titled 12" EP reissued and more

The long out of press and highly sought after album and self-titled 12" EP by NRSB-11 has been reissued by Disciples (a  sub-label of Warp Records). You can get both as a bundle along with a tote-bag exclusively from Bleep now at this link. You can also get just the album Commodified on double clear vinyl and CD. The three track 12" EP is also available on clear vinyl and features Nina Kraviz on one track. This is fantastic news and has been one fans have wanted at retail price for a long time. The EP and album were originally released on WeMe Records in 2012 and 2013.

https://bleep.com/release/410892-nrsb-11-commodified

https://bleep.com/release/411902-nrsb-11-nrsb-11

'NRSB-11 is the brainchild of Dataphysix (of Drexciya and Dopplereffekt) DJ Stingray 313 (Drexciya's touring DJ), Penelope Martin and Lana Jastrevski. Their sole and wholly singular album Commodified dropped in 2013 on Belgium label WéMè Records, enigmatically and to immediate attention. The ever current affairs of economics, capitalism, and consumer culture resonate deeply through sparing digitised voices, electrical discharges, and illustrious mechanical rhythms.'

There was a live stream of Dopplereffekt's recent show for Machina Bristonica. It's still online and I've just watched it and it's pretty incredible stuff, amazing music from sound-desk and visuals by Maria Mendes. Well worth a look, hopefully it will remain online. You will find their whole set at 1hr 33min.

It's always a good day when you discover a new Dopplereffekt remix! One of my readers brought 'It's Amazing (Dopplereffekt Hadron Matrix version)' by Lucie Antunes to my attention. Listen on YouTube here and follow links for download,

'Dopplereffekt’s remix of 'It’s Amazing' takes the dance record and morphs its playful ambiance into a synthetic conceptual soundscape. On the original track, Lucie craftily layers computer generated vocals into the production, while Dopplereffekt have stripped the robotic vocals to bare bones, reminiscent of Kraftwerk with their pulsating new wave FM synths.'

Awesome fun track inspired by Dopplereffekt and Dire Straits by the very talented Ed DMX. Love the artwork too.

There is a new track, 'Artimisia' by Avina Vishnu on their Bandcamp. They are really going back to nature with this project.

Albert van Abbe is releasing a very special four track EP of Heinrich Mueller remixes he has commissioned in the past, including one exclusive mix. You can get it on digital or as a one-off acetate dubplate. The artwork is by Erwin Thomasse. You can listen to the unreleased remix on Bandcamp too (pre-order now, out on 19th Oct).

Andrea Benedetti has made an excellent new James Stinson tribute mix for Italy's Radio Raheen.

A 30 minute Gerald Donald video tribute mix I found. The camera angle is right about the decks and mixer, good stuff. Deal With It No. 3 by DJ Tabi aka Olivia Xhignesse.

Drexciya are included in this exhibition in Italy from September 30, 2023 – February 25, 2024. Full details here.

I found this text on Tresor Berlin's old website back in 2004 via the Wayback Machine. Interesting to note how important 'Positron Island' was to the beginning of their relationship back in 1993.

'The first sightings of this nebulous Detroit Techno/Electro outfit began during 1991, forming close liaisons with Underground Resistance and Submerge. "Staying low and staying true", each instalment of the mighty Drexciya discography narrates fantastic accounts of conflict and survival in the dark depths of unwritten history chapters; tales of ...yesternow. Swimming with stories of `aquatic funk bombs and `Darthouven Fish Men, Drexciyan philosophy, technology and time travel are very real aspects and vital parts to the project.Recording mainly within the UR, Submerge, Shockwave triumverate, Drexciyan outings with labels outside of Detroit have been rare with the exception of one-offs for Warp and Rephlex. Tresor established contact with Drexciya in 1993 via UR with the release of "Deep Detroit Vol. 2: Magic Tracks Compiled by Juan Atkins" featuring Drexciya´s "Positron Island"; the track which for many European youth would become anthemic, sonically defining the magic that is Detroit. Within the then revolutionary climates found in united Germany and other Eastern European countries finding themselves anew, Drexciya was the sound of originality; music for change and identity. Armed with freestyle Electro, Techno and Funk, Drexciya defies categorization and sounds like ...`Drexciya'.'

One of my readers very kindly shared a photo of the new cover artwork for Tresor Berlin's recent Drexciya reissues. If any of you are visiting there soon it can be found outside Tresor's club. You can also just about make out a James Stinson quote underneath, "An infinite journey to inner space within". It comes from the Liz Copeland interview on Detroit Public Radio in 2002. The sentence was in response to being asked to describe the theme of Drexciya; in full he said, “An infinite journey to inner space, within, and find out the beauty that’s inside and bring it out."

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.'