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.

Gerald Donald guide on Accolades, The Otolith Group in Galway preview and more

A video interview with DJ Prime Cuts of Scratch Perverts talking to Crate Records about the music of Gerald Donald for their Accolades series (12 mins). Worth book-marking and watching when you can. 

Dopplereffekt are on the bill for this festival in Mongolia, 10th June 2023.

New Drexciya related work from The Otolith Group at Galway Arts Centre, Ireland (13th May - 1st July). The opening includes a talk with The Otolith Group and DeForrest Brown Jr plus a DJ set by the latter. Full details at link. 

‘A Sphere Of Water Orbiting A Star’, conceived by The Otolith Group in collaboration with sound designer and composer Tyler Friedman for Galway Arts Centre, features unreleased recordings of conversations between Gerald Donald of Detroit Techno duo Drexciya and Kodwo Eshun, along with films made in Galway at the mouth of the River Corrib as it enters the Atlantic Ocean.

‘A Sphere Of Water Orbiting A Star’ is an immersive audio visual environment, conceived as a guide to the imagination, exploring a liquid world orbiting a binary star system through the sonic portal of Drexciya.'

You can also watch the trailer and rent Hydra Decapita (2010) by The Otolith Group at this Vimeo link. The particular section used for the trailer (1 min) is actually really interesting because you can hear Gerald Donald talking about the origins and nature of Drexciya/Drexciyans. 

I've updated the Discography post on DRL and have now included official stream and digital download links as well. Its been designed as an 'at a glance' guide to Drexciya and all the other related projects I cover here. It's everything I'm aware of and when it was first and last pressed. If there's anything I've missed please let me know, enjoy.

"Between ’98 and ’06 I was working menial jobs and doing minimal production, but nothing that was released with the exception of a mix I did on Ken’s first 12″. It was a strange period for sure. I was a little too focused on chilling. It took the DEMF and a meeting with James Stinson to snap me out of a malaise that I was in."

Great 2010 DJ Stingray 313 interview in Little White Earbuds (full interview here). 

The new Nativist EP from Ultradyne is now available on vinyl at various places online and elsewhere and digitally from their Bandcamp.

Anders Wimpelman has made another great Drexciya and related themed mix. I like how he includes so many different projects of James Stinson and Gerald Donald as well as interview snippets as well. Part 2 of mix here.

Heinrich Mueller False Vacuum Vol. 2, DJ Mag Drexciya long read, Gedankenexperiment reissue, Dopplereffekt live in Berlin and more

WeMe Records have been in touch with an exclusive, they will have a second volume of Heinrich Mueller's False Vacuum available by the end of the year (WeMe313.33). They have been compiling the cream of his remix/remodel work since 2018. Vol. 1 is sold out but you can check it out here.

DJ Mag has a new long read about Drexciya. It was written by Ben Cardew and he takes his starting point as The Quest and gives an excellent overview of their career as well as putting their music in the context of today. He also looks at the development of their mythology and includes plenty of James Stinson quotes, well worth your time.

Dopplereffekt have a live show at RSO, Berlin on 27th April with visuals by Maria Mendes (who made the cover art and more for Neurotelepathy). For the record they also played  a show in Oslo on 31st March. 

Gedankenexperiment's Experiment Defined 12" EP is now reissued on vinyl with one extra track, 'Radiation Vacuum', on Spain's Apena Records. This collaboration between Heinrich Mueller and Beta Evers was originally released on WeMe Records in 2011. You can sample all the tracks on the Juno player and at many more other online shops. 

A New York show by MIROVAYA LINIYA and others was streamed and you can watch it at this link. Their show starts around 17 mins.

I came across the rare 1994 Mike Banks/Underground Resistance cover story for Jockey Slut at this link.

DeForrest Brown Jr. has made an impressive two hour Drexciya themed mix ('The Myth of Drexciya') with an interview to go with it for Carhartt Work In Progress. At the end of the mix there is a brief excerpt from Hydra Decapita (2010) by The Otolith Group where you can hear ‘The Author’ aka 'Remnant of a Hydrogen Element' aka Gerald Donald speaking about Drexciya which is followed by the rare Dopplereffekt track 'Ascension of Genetic Intelligence' (preview edit of track here).

I thought this part of Brown's interview was also important to note and archive here:

'From what I understand, James Stinson was very intentional when he talked to journalists and how that interacted with the maps, liner notes, and track titles of each release. In my conversations with Gerald Donald, I found that the scientific potentiality of Drexciya was a philosophical theory similar to how Plato used the lost city of Atlantis as a way of thinking about societies outside of Athens on a kind of game board. This type of game theory and speculative fiction is what initially attracted me to techno – as a writer, avid listener, and musician, I wanted to explore the world that they built together while jamming in Stinson's mother's basement.'

One of my readers kindly brought these early Drexciya reviews to my attention. They both come from Music Week. The Deep Sea Dweller EP review was penned by Loftgroover aka Tony Collins and Bubble Metropolis was reviewed by DJ and producer Steve Bicknell. The date of the magazine can also give us a better idea of what time of the year they were released. Assuming these were new when reviewed I would now put DSD at about Oct/Nov '92 and Bubble Metropolis at May/June '93.

Abstract Thought and Shifted Phases albums reissued after 20 years

Clone Records have announced they are reissuing and are now taking pre-orders for Hypothetical Situations (2003)  by Abstract Thought. There seems to initially be a limited orange double vinyl edition exclusive to clone.nl (one per customer). They say it's also possible to pre-order regular black as well (promo text below). Expected release date is 27th Feb. Order from them here and on Bandcamp.

This is very long awaited reissue and was one of Drexciya's Storm Series. Back in October DRL ran some posts about the album (scroll down) and maybe this got a dialogue going with the original label Kombination Research or else it has been in the pipeline for sometime as this is its 20th anniversary, either way it's great to have the album widely available again for new and old fans.

On I think the same day Tresor opened the pre-order for the equally long awaited Shifted Phases album, The Cosmic Memoirs of the Late Great Rupert J. Rosinthrope (2002) (more info below). That makes all but one (Tranllusion's L.I.F.E.) of Drexciya's Storm Series to have now been reissued since first release and some very recently. This is great news and it has been a long journey for the fans who year after year created the demand which the labels have fulfilled.

'Re-issue of Drexciya's 4th storm! Another seminal work of 6 Futuristic deep & Drexciyan Electro/Techno tracks. Hypothetical questions translated into music by one of the visionaries of contemporary electronic music. ''Music beamed through Dimensional Waves by Abstract Thought...''

Remastered from the original session tapes.

Limited Clone.nl exclusive on Orange Flame coloured vinyl in premium glossy jacket with heavy weight color innersleeves. First come, first serve! (Please ask specifically if you want a black vinyl copy when ordering)'

Tresor Berlin are also now taking Bandcamp pre-orders for the very long awaited reissue of Shifted Phases' The Cosmic Memoirs Of The Late Great Rupert J. Rosinthrope (2002) in special edition form. It comes with new artwork by Matthew Angelo Harrison and the vinyl is now in triple with CD extra tracks 'Alien Distress Call' and 'Crossing Of The Sun-Ra Nebula' included. It comes in silver and regular black vinyl editions as well as CD (available 31st March). They have also written notes just for this release which I've included below.

'In early 2023, Tresor Records will reissue the sole output from Shifted Phases entitled The Cosmic Memoirs Of The Late Great Rupert J. Rosinthrope. Initially released in 2002, soon after James Stinson passed away, this LP plays a mysterious and compelling role in the Drexciya journey. While other records of Drexciya and related projects have received numerous reprints and editions, The Cosmic Memoirs... has remained out of print since its release. This rarity leaves it more open to interpretation with its place in the Drexciyan storm series, as it became increasingly hard to find and underexplored.

Track titles Solar Wind, White Dwarf, and Lonely Journey of the Comet Bopp reveal a focus on cosmic realms, suggesting a link with the Drexciya LP Grava 4 that moves from the underwater to the galactic. As it launches with mechanical blows on a precise orbit, each repetition entrenches the gravitational pull in the galaxy of Shifted Phases. In many places, it sounds like the readout of frequencies harvested from outer space, pockmarked with packet loss from the millions of kilometres distance travelled.

The music is hard to contain, intuitively restless in motion through its unfolding universe and achingly resonant. It shapeshifts across affectedly melodic sequences such as in Lonely Journey..., to the sparse, hard-hitting timbres found in Alien Vessel Distress Call and the mangled reverse vocals in The Freak Show, somewhat reminiscent of another Drexciya side-project, Glass Domain. The mythology of Drexciya is evident in how keenly James Stinson and Gerald Donald created their imaginary worlds. In Crossing Of The Sun-Ra Nebula, there is an undisputable reference to another Afro-futurist who delved deep into a galaxy of their own making.

This reissue does not merely close the loop on Tresor's reissue series of the Drexciya catalogue but brings Shifted Phases to fresh ears more than other records. Accompanied by newly commissioned artwork from Matthew Angelo Harrison, the 3xLP vinyl reissue also features the tracks Crossing Of The Sun-Ra Nebula and Alien Vessel Distress Call, which were previously only on the original CD release.'

Julia Pello and Heinrich Mueller's Mirovaya Liniya have a rare live show in New York on 5th February. Full details here. EDIT: The show can now be streamed here. You can listen to some of their music so far at this Bandcamp link.

'The title of the piece for this performance is “ETHICA: Book 1”; utilizing multiple projections, live vocals, and electronic sound, it takes up Spinoza’s ontology from Book 1: On God. Please note that Heinrich Mueller will not be performing at this event....A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing.'

Transllusion special editions on Tresor, The Other People Place Muzik 2001 interview, new Doplereffekt track and more

 

You can now pre-order Transllusion's The Opening of the Cerebral Gate (3LP, clear vinyl 3LP, CD & digital) and the Mind Over Positive and Negative Dimensional Matter 12" on Tresor Berlin's Bandcamp. You can also check out the new artwork by Matthew Angelo Harrison for these special editions. Both available from 10th Feb 2023. 

There is a brand new and rather beautiful Dopplereffekt track, 'Bat Ray (Myliobatis Californicus)' on a cassette/digital compilation from Obsolete Future. 

Arpanet have one live show coming up, 3rd Feb 2023 in Newcastle.

Clone Records have just re-pressed their 2021 reissue of the self-titled and debut 12" by Japanese Telecom. You can find it at usual places.

One of those 'Blind Test' youtube video features a track by Drexciya, check it out here.

“I said, ‘I’ve got to get my own equipment.’ I didn’t have any money. The equipment I had was pawn shop equipment that I got for like $100, $125 dollars. I found a blue [Roland] SH-101, a [Roland] Juno 2, and I bought a [Roland TR-909] from one of the guys from Drexciya [Gerald Donald].”

Robert Hood speaking in this very in-depth 2019 article about his classic album Minimal Nation (1994). 

I came across a review/interview with The Other People Place in Muzik magazine (Oct 2001 pg. 106). It is a very short box piece but it's revealing in more than one way. The magazine emailed them and got some kind of response and perhaps even a video.

I have the full text below but essentially they are treated like a pair of lunatics, even though the album is called 'rather cool'. If you know this is a member of Drexciya speaking it does make more sense but I don't think this was explained to the writer. I have no idea what they emailed back (would be great to know full contents) but I guess this is the big risk of being enigmatic, mysterious or just playful with the press. TOPP was the first of the Storm series albums to be released and coincidently or not from now on James Stinson would do straight forward interviews and get his points across and be treated in a serious way. 

'Who The Hell Are...

The Other People Place

They all live in a mellow submarine.

Who indeed?

TOPP, as they're not known in vibey chill out cyber bars across the United States, proved to be some of the most elusive creatures Muzik has ever encountered. The gloopy, loopy valium tech-gnosis of their rather cool 'Lifestyles of the Laptop Cafe' album gives little hint of the lunacy that lies at the heart of the People Place machine.  

When we eventually tracked them down, it was via a now defunct email address whose user claimed to be at a console deep beneath the ocean waves somewhere off the coast of Malta. When quizzed the Peeps (as they are also not known) sent an Mpeg clip. This showed a flying saucer landing on what appeared to the coast of Hawaii. Out step two smartly dressed gentlemen, faces wrapped in the style of The Invisible Man, who flip open attache cases, take a seat beneath the palms and then walk into the sea. 

"You will never find us now", reads their closing statement. "Take heed and learn, for this will be our last communication to your lost planet."

That and their album, presumably. More power to the weirdo's we say...'