Harnessed The Storm reissue, Der Zyklus remix Tiga, Abstract Thought info and more

Tresor Berlin have revealed the new artwork and are now taking orders for Drexciya's Harnessed The Storm (orig rel. 2001). They also have the accompanying 12" Digital Tsunami available as well (both can be found at their Bandcamp). The album is available on digital, CD, regular double vinyl and limited white vinyl too (out on 11th Nov). The new artwork for all of these Tresor reissues has been designed by Matthew Angelo Harrison.

Arpanet have a live show confirmed for Newcastle on 3rd Feb 2023.

Heinrich Mueller is one of the collaborators (electronics) on No. 5, the latest album by Christina Vantzou. It's available on LP, CD and digital. She is also a member of Daughter Produkt and collaborated on a track on the new Dopplereffekt album.  Bandcamp link here.

There is a new Der Zyklus remix of 'Easy' by Tiga. You can get it on digital and a 12" of remixes on Turbo Recordings (stream here) . Tiga said this about it on his Instagram.  

'This is why I have a record label. For this feeling. You fall in love with an artist. You dream of one day working with them. Just somehow getting close to their sound, finding a way to combine your visions or just hang out. Either one will do. In this case, the artist was Gerald Donald aka Der Zyklus, aka one half of Dopplereffekt and Drexciya and Arpanet. Nobody is more foundational and inspirational to what we all do. It simply does not get more legit. Or more mysterious/elusive/harder to reach. Specifically I don’t even think I would make the music I make without hearing records like “pornoactress”. THEN…. The real thrill of the conversation, the back and forth, the real A&R of starting with “holy shit imagine a Der Zyklus mix of Easy” and then GETTING exactly what you dreamed of….. the absolute funkiest, dopest, zero bullshit, godfather, ground zero electro funk track. GAME OVER. None more badass. Thanks G. Out now on turbo. Link in bio. The saga continues 24years deep. ❤️❤️❤️❤️ t'

One of my readers kindly sent me a pic of a note attached to what seems to be a promo copy of Hypothetical Situations (2003) by Abstract Thought on Kombination Research (from their own collection). The text was probably written by Cisco Ferreira of The Advent who runs the label or perhaps the distributor. I have never seen it before but there was a white label sent out a few months before the album was actually released. This is one of Drexciya's Storm series and has never been re-pressed and is of course most highly sought after. Nice to have this additional message archived anyway.  

'Important: Please try to respect that the members of "Abstract Thought" are not willing to be profiled in a feature because they want their music to be the centre of interest. Nevertheless, articles about the Detroit electro scene in general or reviews of the album "Hypothetical Situations" are welcome. Thanks'

Following on from the above, when I posted this on the DRL FB page Cisco Ferreira left this comment.

'Thanks for the Post. We treated this release with the upmost respect. And only did a 2000 unit limited run. So anyone who has this in their collection 👏🏻👏🏻, Kombination Research (KR) was originally a label I started to releases only my The Advent solo music, I became very good friends with Drexciya over the 90’s and my KR B-sides were very much Drex Influenced. This ‘hypothetical Situations’ project was a complete honour when I received the Demo for release. Recently during the pandemic I was approached to maybe re releases this from last remaining Drexicyian, but unfortunately the master DATs are completely destroyed with Tape erosion....The CD’s were all in MP3 format, This was an early time in digital that MP3 were mostly used instead of WAV files at CD pressing plants.'

"I talked to them (Drexciya), we argued about some things. One of their first pieces, I think it was Glass Domain, I was telling them the count from the beginning of the song wasn't even. You know, it didn't come in on like an eight or even a 16, it came in on like a five or a seven." 

Archived from a DJ Stingray 313 interview with Derek Walmsley in The Wire (April 2010). He could only be talking about 'Shatter Prone' (1991), which just seems to jump into life mid bar and continues to rip along in the same fashion.

I made a Dopplereffekt special for Dublin Digital Radio. It concentrates on their music post Gesamtkunswerk (1999) as this is when they radically changed their sound. There's an introduction by me at the start and then it's a mix of my favourite music up to their latest album.

UR/Tresor Drexciya faxes archived

In July and August this year Tresor staged an exhibition in Berlin to mark 31 years of the legendary and ground breaking label and club. The exhibits featured two historic faxes sent by UR to Tresor regarding Drexciya. I was kindly sent the images by a fan and am not sure if they have already been shared by others online but now that the exhibition is over I thought it would be okay to archive them here.

 As you can see Mike Banks was writing to let Carola Stoiber at Tresor know that Drexciya were reunited after their hiatus/break in late '95 (this break was only made known with the release of The Quest in '97). It's interesting to note the date of the first fax was 12th January 1999 as Neptune's Lair was released by Tresor in November '99. It's also interesting that even at this stage they were offering a multi-album deal. The 'Storm Series' is not mentioned but it might already have been in James' mind. We don't know if Tresor signed just NL first or went ahead and did the multi deal. Regardless, Tresor would release multiple albums in the coming years, including Drexciya's Harnessed The Storm, the first Transllusion album and the Shifted Phases album along with 12" EPs from all of these albums. I love the excitement evident in Mike's message and even in the writing and exclamation points of Carola's response.

The second fax is more detailed and obviously in response to the first (or Tresor's follow-up with details of the deal) and again Mike is writing and even appears to be seated with James Stinson at the time. Again the language Mike uses is infectiously enthusiastic. It's interesting to note that even at this early stage they had the artist in mind for the artwork (Abdul Haqq). The British based labels Mike mentions could be Rephlex and Warp but whatever issues James had with them must have been resolved as both he and Gerald Donald would go on to work with both again (Transllusion, The Other People Place, Dopplereffekt, Arpanet etc). Unless he is referring to UK labels that licenced a track for a compilation or something?

When Carola Stoiber was interviewed by Red Bull Music Academy in 2018 she spoke about travelling to Detroit and meeting James at Belle Isle Park. If this was still concerning Neptune's Lair the visit must have happened later on in 1999 or if it concerned the multi-album deal it could have been the following year or later. 

It's great to see these faxes and to get a sense of the times and how they returned as Drexciya.

Drexciya Day 2022, Dopplereffekt Recomposite and James Stinson tribute by Scape One

Drexciya Day Events

Manchester 3rd September

Helsinki 3rd September

Humpty Records Saarbrücken, Germany 3rd September

Spin Beer & Record Shop, Rome, Italy 3rd September 

The 20th anniversary of James Stinson's death will be in less than a months 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.

If anyone wants to organise something please let me know and I will be very happy to share it. Email or contact me through the DRL FB page with an FB event link or whatever. Please use #drexciyaday2022 for your events. Thanks

The only confirmed event I'm aware of so far will be happening at Manchester's Eastern Bloc Records on 3rd September. They have an amazing line-up and it also ties in with two artists (All Trades and Prieste5s) being commissioned by Brighter Sound to produce new music. I will add any new event into this post.

There is what is called a 'Dopplereffekt Recomposite' of 'Cameo', the new single by Kavinsky. It's almost a conventional remix in that the vocal is very much intact but the music is very Dopplereffekt. It doesn't seem to be available on vinyl but can be streamed and downloaded at this link and others. Kavinsky is label-mates with Arpanet on Record Makers and back in 2006 Arpanet reworked 'Nightdrive'.

One of my readers pointed out an early tribute to James Stinson by Scape One aka Kurt Baggaley. You will find the rather beautiful 'The Light Of Other Days (Atlantis) (For James)' on his 2003 Planet Funk Express: Journeys 3 & 4 12" for Electrix. You can listen on YouTube here.

As ever keep an eye on Resident Advisor for the latest Dopplereffekt live dates (six at this time).. 

Tresor launch Drexciya reissue campaign with new artwork, including Shifted Phases and Transllusion

Tresor Records are beginning a Drexciya reissue campaign. The first release will be Neptune's Lair on double LP, double clear vinyl LP and CD. You can pre-order it now on Bandcamp, it will be available on or around 2nd September. They have commissioned Detroit artist Matthew Angelo Harrison to make new artwork for it. 

After this they will also be releasing Hydro Doorways 12" EP, Drexciya's Harnessed The Storm and Digital Tsunami, Transllusion's The Opening of the Cerebral Gate and Shifted Phases' The Cosmic Memoirs of the Late Great Rupert J. Rosinthorpe. They will all have new artwork by Harrison too. This will be the first time the Shifted Phases album will be available since it was first released in 2002. 

'Tresor Records is proud to announce forthcoming special editions of its entire catalogue of Drexciya and related projects. 

2022 marks the 20th anniversary of the passing of James Stinson and the releases of the Transllusion and Shifted Phases albums. In recognition, the rightsholders, their families, and the label have commissioned Detroit-based contemporary artist Matthew Angelo Harrison to re-conceptualize the covers of Tresor's Drexciya-related catalogue. These editions will be released sequentially, bimonthly, starting early-September 2022.'

Dopplereffekt have a new live show conformed as part iof Tresor 31, a two month festival in Berlin. They play in Globus on Sat 13th August.

Avina Vishnu's DJ set for Belgiums's Meakusma show on Studio Neau radio is available now at this link. It's a great set and seems to be a mixture of their music, other Mueller projects like NRSB-11 and maybe various artists. 

One of my readers kindly let me know that Sean Booth of Autechre briefly talked about Drexciya in a recent 'Ask Me Anything' online video. He's talking about how some of Autechre's early music would be rejected by Warp and it took two years before their debut Incunabula (1993) was compiled from what was accepted. This section starts at 1hr 28min 50sec.

"I remember at the time, just after Drexciya 2 (1993) came out...and that was the first Drexciya record I'd heard so I went to Rob Mitchell (RIP) at Warp and said, have you heard this Drexciya shit it's fucking fire, it's like amazing, you need to sign them. I don't know where they are or anything about them...and he was like, no, it's too retro. And that was like the problem, a lot of the Warp tape stuff (Autechre's early music), it was like, yeah it's good but it just sounds a bit old." 

Arpanet Quantum Transposition re-press, Der Zyklus remodel, Drexciya lesson plan and more

Clone Records are re-pressing and re-mastering Arpanet's Quantum Transposition (2005). It will be on double vinyl and there is a new unreleased track too. It was previously available on Rephlex Records but has been out of press since then. This is another incredible album, you can sample all the tracks and pre-order at this link. It's due about 1st July.

There is a Der Zyklus remodel on Marija Jovanovic's new remix release on Third Ear Recordings. It's available on Bandcamp along with a solo remix by Elena Sizova of DZ too. The remixes come from Jovanovic's 2019 EP Delicate Minds.

Another re-press/re-stock has gone under the radar, if you missed out on the vinyl edition of Dopplereffekt's Cellular Automata (2017) on Leisure System it's available again on the Bandcamp page with no quantity restrictions (eg. 1 remaining) so maybe it's a re-press? Awhile back they also pressed it on CD for the first time as well and that is still available too. The vinyl and CD copies of Dopplereffekt's latest album Neurotelepathy are also out on 10th June. 

Through Resident Advisor you can check out Dopplereffekt's latest upcoming live shows here (3 at this time). 

John R. Eperjesi, who recently published an academic paper, 'Drexciya’s Bubble Metropolis and Blue Cultural Studies' has created a Drexciya based lesson plan for teachers. You can read 'Drexciya and Our Ocean Planet' and read the Teacher's Guide here. 

The Wonky Angle has done a deep dive on Gerald Donald, from Drexciya right up to the latest Dopplereffekt album. Great to find he is a fan, well worth a watch. 

There is a new all vinyl Drexciya themed mix by DJ and producer Niall Power with visuals by Francesca Bonci. It went out as part of the Mindframe series on deepspaceradio in April. A lovely mix with some incredible visuals.

Lastly, I wonder if Detroit Police's Underwater Recovery Team listen to Drexciya? 

Drexciya commission, Dopplereffekt radio show and more

To tie-in with Drexciya Day 2022 (which will be the 20th anniversary of James Stinson's death) Brighter Sound are 'commissioning two artists, one from the North of England, and one from the USA, to collaborate and produce new music reflecting on the legacy of Detroit electro-techno duo Drexciya'. The deadline is 15th May.

There is a £2000 prize for the selected work which will be performed live on Drexciya Day (3rd September) during an event at Manchester's Eastern Bloc.

This is also a good time to remind fans who are interest in organising their own Drexciya Day events to start thinking about it. As usual I will be happy to share them here to spread the word. Drexciya Day is on and around 3rd September.

Avina Vishnu (Aina & Heinrich Mueller) are playing a very rare gig in Belgium on 5th June (it may even be their first ever live show).

Dopplereffekt's new album Neurotelepathy is now available for digital download from Bandcamp, vinyl and CD from 10th June. More info about them below. 

There is a new Instagram account for Mirovaya Liniya (Julia Pello & Heinrich Mueller) with some new artwork.

John R. Eperjesi has just published an academic paper, 'Drexciya’s Bubble Metropolis and Blue Cultural Studies' in the University of California's Journal of Popular Music Studies. He sent me a copy and I must say he has some fresh analysis, has brought their environmental concerns to the fore and even got to grips with their complex origin mythology. It is accessible and well worth reading by all fans of Drexciya for sure. 

The Feb/March issue of France's Gonzaï magazine is a special on Afrofuturism. There is a piece on Drexciya by Ruddy Guilman and this very cool illustration by Olivier Laude. It seems to be only available as a hardcopy from this link (it's also written in French). I did an interview for it back in January so it's nice to see it available.

"Dopplereffekt is Gerald Donald. Gerald's a very interesting character. I've known this guy since he was a little punk. He used to come to my house and play my music—or play his music, which was crazier back then than any of this stuff. He would try anything. He pushed buttons. That was great about Gerald. He's a huge Kraftwerk fan, a huge Juan Atkins fan. He's also had another group [with James Stinson] called Drexciya."

Carl Craig selects Dopplereffekt's Linear Accelerator for this excellent 2021 piece about the 30th anniversary of Planet E. His label also released music from Donald and Brendan M Gillen's Flexitone in the mid '90s.

"Yeah, it’s such a shame he’s not here anymore (James Stinson). I always wonder what music he might be making if he was still around today. I discovered Drexciya’s music just from hanging out at Rubadub, everyone there was always going on about them. They held them in such high esteem that you just get sucked into it that way. I think this Transllusion album, Neptune’s Lair and Lab Rat XL’s Mice or Cyborg are my favourite Drexciya records. I picked the Transllusion album because of ‘Dimensional Glide’, which was a direct influence on ‘I’m For Real’, the track I did with Nightwave for the album. Doing at the Art School and [Paisley venue] Club 69, and hanging out at loads of afterparties in Glasgow, Drexciya’s music was always essential."

Glasgow's Konx-om-Pax selects Transllusion's The Opening of the Cerebral Gate for this 2019 piece for The Quietus.

Dopplereffekt were on Bristols's Noods Radio and are taking part in a three month residency there so expect more to follow. So far they have made a mix show called Hydrogen Pulsar which has now been archived, in case it disappears the track-list is below. You can find the latest Dopplereffekt live shows at this link. Nothing scheduled for Arpanet right now but Dopplereffekt's next show is in Cologne on 29th April (more at link). 

Grand River - Canopies

JakoJako - Neogenese

Mirovaya Liniya - Book II Definitions V + VI

Dopplereffekt -Cerebral Data Download 2100 A.D

Bjork-Pagen Poetry

Goldfrapp - Human

Jeff Mills - Silence

Jeff Mills - Transformation A

X-101 - The Flyby

Monic - What Lies Behind Us

Jeff Mills-Revolt

Dopplereffekt -Cerebral to Cerebral Interface

Dopplereffekt -Neutron Impulse Acutator

JakoJako - Viridis

All known Heinrich Mueller interviews to date and more

I thought it was well overdue to compile links to read all the Heinrich Mueller interviews I am aware of. There have been 13 so far, two of which included Michaela To-Nhan Le Thi as well. As you can see from the list, I've also included interviews with other collaborators for projects he was directly involved with (eg. Black Replica, Zwischenwelt and Zerkalo). If you notice that I've missed any please do let me know. I will continue to update this post as new and old interviews come to light. 

Arpanet interview by John Osselaer (Techno Tourist April 2002) with Heinrich Mueller. The original should still be viewable through the Wayback Machine here.  

Arpanet interview by Koen Marien (KindaMuzik July 2002) with Heinrich Mueller

Der Zyklus interview by Andrea Benedetti (Superfly 2004) with Heinrich Mueller

Der Zyklus interview by Pawel Gzyl (Gaz-Eta 2004) with Heinrich Mueller

Arpanet interview (Chronic'art July 2006) with Heinrich Mueller

Black Replica interview by Pawel Gzyl (Gaz-Eta 2007) with Black Replica

Dopplereffekt interview by Derek Walmsley (The Wire Feb 2009/Publ Oct 2009) with Heinrich Mueller & Michaela To-Nhan Le Thi This is behind a paywall

Zwischenwelt interview by Derek Walmsley (Resonance FM April 2010) with Susana Correia (Part one & part two) (Audio)

Dopplereffekt interview (Red Bull Music Academy Radio Fireside Chat series August 2010) with Heinrich Muller (Audio) You can find some of the interview in text form here.

Zerkalo interview by Kiran Sande (Fact Magazine April 2010) with Victoria Lukas

Zerkalo interview by Tamash Kestawitz (Cynetart Nov 2010) with Victoria Lukas

Zwischenwelt interview in Resident Advisor (March 2011) with Heinrich Mueller & Penelope Martin

Zwischenwelt interview by Thomas Corlin (Hartzine June 2011) with Heinrich Mueller & Beta Evers

Drexciya subject of interview by Florian Sievers (Groove May 2012) with Heinrich Mueller 

Dopplereffekt interview by A.J. Samuels (Electronic Beats Winter 2012) with Heinrich Mueller

Short Dopplereffekt interview by Clemency Burton-Hill (Financial Times Oct 2013) with Heinrich Mueller

Dopplereffekt interview by Joe Muggs (Resident Advisor Feb 2014) with Heinrich Mueller & Michaela To Nhan-Thi

Dopplereffekt interview by Oliver Clasper (Boom Nov 2014) with Heinrich Mueller & Michaela To Nhan-Thi

Dopplereffekt - Neurotelepathy pre-order, Mirovaya Liniya and more

There is a new Dopplereffekt album coming soon on Leisure System. The 10 track Neurotelepathy will be released on double vinyl and CD  on 10th June and 14th April for digital. Full details and pre-ordering at this Bandcamp link. There is one track on the BC player that you can listen to now.

'Who controls the mind controls the body.

After three years of experimentation in isolation, Dopplereffekt have emerged with Neurotelepathy, an oracular narrative of cerebral entanglement and advancement. The sleek mathematical models of 2017’s Cellular Automata have evolved into these synaptic interpretations, transferences and modifications, rejecting binary expectations to meditate on the possibilities and pitfalls of what’s to come.

With their second LP and fifth release in total on Leisure System, the duo of Rudolf Klorzeiger and To-Nhan have themselves achieved a near-telepathic capacity for collaborative thought and mechanical construction. They continue to use live appearances to present experimental trials of theoretical models, and that effort is heard in the sizzle and swing of the percussive highlights here, programmed with a serious depth and wriggle that reflect both an extension of and return to form. Considerations of the machine-human interface, neurological realities and physical probabilities dominate. But these tracks are economical and precise, glittering with emotional depth and cinematic effects. The album's core, a three-act movement of symphonic uncertainty and revelation, marks one of the pair's most evocative compositions in a career full of them.

Territory is monitored, traced and scanned, resulting in unexpected modulations. Underlying systems are questioned, competing mindsets animated and mutated: brain-to-brain, brain-to-machine and beyond. Neurotelepathy processes these transformative mental, psychological and transgenerational states both traumatic and triumphant.'

Leisure System will also issue Cellular Automata (2017) on CD for the first time, it's out on June 10th and can be pre-ordered on Bandcamp.

Dopplereffekt were one of the artists who took part in a show to celebrate 30 years of Tresor on Arte. You can watch their 32 min opening performance at this link. It's great to see and hear them filmed in such quality (they are in a studio with no audience).

A new collaborative audio visual project between Heinrich Mueller and Julia Pello has just been announced. They are using the name World Line / Mirovaya Liniya and there are currently three tracks on their Bandcamp page. They seem to be following the poetic theme of Zerkalo (Julia Pello was a member). Great to see them working together again.

It's possible that US sci-fi series Man From Atlantis (1977-1978) was another early influence on the underwater world of Drexciya. James Stinson would have been around 8 when it first aired (there were 4 TV movies and a 13 part series). I've previously written about The Abyss, Battle of the Planets and Sealab 2020 in this context. An outline of the story concept is below.

'Mark Harris is the lone survivor of the legendary sunken continent of Atlantis. Having adapted to life underwater, Mark possesses webbed hands, light-sensitive eyes, and the ability to swim at low depths in the sea for long periods. He draws strength from water and can overpower most ordinary men. Mark assists an institute for undersea research operated by his human friends, Dr. Elizabeth Merrill and C.W. Crawford, and joins Dr. Merrill in several exploratory missions aboard a high-tech submarine. They encounter several bizarre phenomena, including portals leading to other dimensions, a substance capable of altering personalities, an impish creature whose touch causes a mental return to childhood, and the scheme of a portly millionaire, Mr. Schubert, to melt the polar icecaps.'

Some of this certainly sounds familiar; a humanoid adapted to life underwater, a research lab, an aqua wormhole, strange phenomena and a Dr. Blowfin type character. You can even spot a prominent sea snake in this video of the opening credits.

Drexciya and Deltron 3030 are the main subjects of this excellent piece by Nathan Evans for Key Mag.

A really wonderful new fan made video for Glass Domain's 'Interlock' from 1991. I've said here before how the lyrics sound like advert copy and this video really makes the music seem to come from an official LEGO advert too.

 

Dopplereffekt Calabi Yau Space reissue, live dates, radio mix, Wavejumpers and archiving

The reissue on WeMe Records of Dopplereffekt's Calabi Yau Space (2007) on regular black double vinyl is now in stock online and record shops. Image and text comes from Bleep.com. The regular black vinyl reissue of Japanese Telecom's Virtual Geisha (2001) by Clone Records is also now available in all good record shops. 

'14 years since it was originally released on Rephlex Records, WeMe Records give Dopplereffekt's 'Calabi Yau Space' the reissue treatment, following their excellent reissue of 'Linear Accelerator'.

Here, eight analogue experiments referencing deep space exploration, theoretical physics and the supernatural are brought into focus. When first released, the tracks were perceived by some as Dopplereffekt at their most challenging and avant, standing out from the quintessential beat-driven electro sound they were known for. The tracks have an experimental focus and are at times completely free of rhythm, with shifting layers and discordant melodies achieving a rich, austere timbre. Close your eyes and turn it up for maximum effect as the precision sound engineering acts as a kind of eyelid cinema. It's certainly a departure as 'Calabi Yau Space' falls neatly into the lineage of deep experimental listening, and is more reminiscent of Schultzian Tangerine Dream or the Radiophonic Workshop than the fetish electro Dopplereffekt is best known for.

An essential record and a joyous outlier for Dopplerfekkt fans, and a great voyage for all fans of Techno in the sense that the term was originally intended.'

Dopplereffekt provided the 'Phones Down Finale Mix' on Afrodeutsche's The People's Party on BBC Radio 6 Music. She also plays Drexciya's 'Bottom Feeders' earlier in the show and talked about what a huge influence they were on her. I hope this podcast plays in every territory, if not the track-list is...

Dopplereffekt - Mitosis

Robert Hood - Internal Empire

Jeff Mills - Life Cycle

The Exaltics - The Truth

Cosmocracy - Human Rebellion

Joey Beltram - Drome

It's great to see more shows for Arpanet and Dopplereffekt getting booked. The line-up for Arpanet's Liverpool (8th April) show now has a a greatly expanded line-up and a new show for Berlin (14th April), Mexico city show on 30th April. has also just been announced (details for both are linked in comments). Dopplereffekt too are confirmed for a festival in Portugal (17th August).

Wavejumpers is a new group featuring Tyree Stinson (ex-Aquanauts), their debut release The Sunken Treasure EP on Underground Resistance will be released in late March/early April according to Rubadub. You can pre-order and sample all five tracks from it at this link. There is even a video interview with them at 56 min here. 

I found this excellent video from 2013 where Jessy Lanza discusses her love of Lifestyles of the Laptop Cafe by The Other People Place. 

I've updated my 2014 post on Heinrich Mueller's remixes/remodels. I've included everything I know about for sure with links to play every track. There are now 42 of them and essentially he creates something unique to the original in most cases. The first was in '96 for Scan X and the latest was in 2018 for Death in Vegas. If you know of any I've missed please let me know, enjoy! 

This is an epic 2018 interview with DJ Stingray for DJ Mag. Some sample text below...

 'Sherard tells of a folder of plans and designs a freshly inspired Stinson gave him during this time, which he’s never shown in public. Sadly, these plans never came to fruition, as Stinson passed away of a heart defect aged just 32. “I took the Drexciya off my name out of respect,” explains Sherard. “I never wanted people to think, ‘Who is this clown riding off the back of Drexciya’s legacy?’ I wanted to show eternal respect and gratitude. He got me onto the world stage and I probably wouldn’t never have made it as a DJ to this stage otherwise. It wasn’t something I was after.”'

It seems like Drexciya saw each of their projects as existing in different dimensions from each other with perhaps The Other People Place being the most literal example of this. For the Storm Series they created the 'Dimensional Waves' production company and James Stinson talked about this as a way to 'wave jump' from label to label around the world as well. 'Dimensional Glide' (2001) by Transllusion could be a reference to this process, an evolution of their 'Wavejumper' track and concept from 1995.

So it could make sense to see Drexciya, Lab Rat XL, Transllusion, Shifted Phases, Abstract Thought, Jack Peoples and even Elecktroids as existing in different dimension from each other. Gerald Donald, as quoted as The Author aka Remnant of a Hydrogen Element in the film, Hydra Decapita (2010) by The Otolith Group has also talked about Drexciya in these terms, 'There is no more Drexciyan dimension. That dimension is closed. Like a wormhole, like a stargate. So this final information you read here is just remnants of a possible possibility that could have happened.'

One of my readers kindly shared this press release/info sheet and as it's not on Discogs or anywhere else online I'm archiving it here. This came with the vinyl album (there was a shorter press release that came with a four track promo 12" EP).

'A coffee table album for the cyber generation or music that can change by sonic revolution?

"Lifestyles of the Laptop Cafe" is the work of an infamous and highly regarded techno artist from Detroit. An associate of Underground Resistance, his true identity remains a mystery.

An interstellar fugitive who fictionalises frequencies into unreal environments. "Lifestyles" combines the chilled summer sounds of low groove techno with eerie radar bleeps, muffled underwater echoes and liquid synth producing soundscapes that are romantic and unsettling, strangely alien yet strangely familiar. 

Highly evolved techno-chillout for darkness or light

Lifestyles of the Laptop Cafe (Warp 90) is released on 3rd September'

One-off collaborations featuring Heinrich Mueller (2013 - 2021)

There is an ever growing number of collaborations with Heinrich Mueller/Dopplereffekt which don't fit into his remix/remodel work (full up to date list of those here) so I thought it was time to make a list to keep track of them and hopefully bring this music to more people's attention. It might be a little confusing as he has collaborated so often but what I am focusing on here tend to be a one-off single track or one time only projects. You can find his usually more long lived group orientated collaborative projects at this discography link (eg. Black Replica, Zerkalo, Gedankenexperiment, Dark Body Parameter etc) but there is some overlap for sure. I just think these listed tracks have fallen through the cracks of categorisation a bit and deserve to be more widely known.

The way this list is designed to work is if you click on the first line you will be brought to the track audio and info about the release itself is included underneath. I will continue to update this post, please let me know if I've missed anything.

Visonia - 'Die Reisen' (with Dopplereeffekt) (Last Known Trajectory Records 2013)

Info 

Project STS-31 - 'Spiralgalaxie' (Heinrich Mueller & Robert Witschakowski) (Solar One Music 2016)

Project STS-31 - '50000 Light Years Away'

Project STS-31 - 'Density Waves'

Project STS -31 - 'The Supermassive Black Hole'

Info

The Exaltics & Rudolf Klorzeiger - '00045​.​00​.​2​.​6' (Solar One Music 2017)

Info

Beta Evers & Heinrich Mueller 'Innerhalb Der Zeit' (Peripheral Minimal 2017)

Info

Kasra V  - 'Atropa Belladonna' (with Dopplereffekt) (Firehouse 2018)

Info

The Exaltics - '00044​.​00​.​1​.​5' (in cooperation with Rudolf Klorzeiger) (Solar One Music 2018)

Info

The Exaltics & Heinrich Mueller – Dimensional Shifting (Solar One Music 2020)

An entire album, more info and tracks here

K1 - 'Star Gazing' (featuring Dopplereffekt) (Puzzlebox Records 2021)

K1 - 'Telescope Array' (featuring Dopplereffekt)

Info

Dopplereffekt's Calabi Yau Space reissue, Arpanet's Hydrostatic Equilibrium EP and more

WeMe Records are reissuing Dopplereffekt's Calabi Yau Space album on vinyl. There is a special limited edition silver double vinyl from this link only. Black vinyl edition is also now available to pre-order from most online shops including Clone. It will be available to ship about 11th Feb 2022. This has not been available since 2007 and was originally released on Rephlex Records. In 2020 WeMe reissued Dopplereffekt's Linear Accelerator in a similar way. Great to see this album available again for new and old fans.

Arpanet will play a live show on Fri 8th April 2022 at Liverpool's very cool IWF Substation venue (Invisible Wind Factory). 

If you prefer getting your music from Bandcamp, the new Arpanet 12" from 30D Records is now available there on vinyl and digital. Available from most online shops too, press info below...

'Arpanet needs no introduction for those who know. Hydrostatic Equilibrium EP is a reissue of the 2 tracks released by 30D Records from the Detroit artist back in 2018 (cat# 30D-006), now presented together in a special limited edition single sided 12" vinyl. The EP includes the original tracks Supernova Remnant and Main Sequence Star, being the only two tracks produced by Arpanet since 2006.

Presented with a new artwork, designed by Arpanet himself, and this time on 30D Records sub label ExoPlanets, Hydrostatic Equilibrium EP becomes an instant collectors must have, especially after the quick sell out that followed the 2018 release and the numerous reissue requests received since then.'

One of my readers tipped me off about this excellent interview with Helena Hauff for OpenLab (Escape Pods hosted by Ralph Lawson & Ben Randm). She selects some incredible tracks for her journey through space including Transllusion's 'Bump It', which sparked an hilarious conversation about high pitched alien voices. This section starts about 49min but you will definitely want to listen to the whole thing, recommended.

DJ Bone tells some Drexciya stories on this radio show he made: Mutated Machines - A Journey Through Detroit Techno. Starts at 9 min, but the whole show is worth a listen.

If Drexciya were fans of Star Trek it's quite likely they enjoyed  Seaquest DSV (Deep-submergence vehicle), an underwater sci-fi show from the US which ran from 1993-'96 (the period of The Quest compilation). This video compiles the intro to all three seasons and some of the lines are very Drexciyan indeed. 

'The series follows the adventures of the high-tech submarine seaQuest DSV 4600, a deep submergence vehicle operated by the United Earth Oceans Organization (UEO), a global coalition of up-world countries and undersea confederations, similar to the United Nations.'

"I never thought for one minute that Drexciya would inspire Afrofuturism. Me and James thought this one thing up about the slaves getting tossed overboard and having a baby underwater and never thought it would be the catalyst. So I learned to just keep my mouth shut and never tell people what the record really is about because sometimes our view is too dark. Other people took it and saw it another way. That was cool, we needed that, we needed them to do that because our shit was fucked up."

Mike Banks speaks a little about Drexciya (51 mins) in this panel interview from 2021 and sheds a bit more light on the collective nature of what has become their most well known and loved mythology. The whole interview is of course worth your time.

If you are interested in tracing and understanding the development of what has become the most well known and dominant mythology associated with Drexciya you will enjoy this link to a PDF of Kodwo Eshun's More Brilliant Than The Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction (1998). 

As many of you know, originally the 'pregnant African slaves thrown overboard' mythology was written only as a possible origin story by UR's The Unknown Writer (with input from Mike Banks and James Stinson) in the CD sleeve notes of The Quest in 1997. Mike Banks refers to it above and how its been embraced by so many others since then and become more of a collective mythology.  

On page 102 of the PDF (pg. 83 if you have a physical copy) you will find 'Liquid Dystopia'. For years this text was also one of the very few available about Drexciya online at Phinnweb and Global Darkness. 

With so little information about Drexciya and so few interviews, right up until the Storm Series really, these pieces in physical and online form of what Eshun called his sonic fiction would have been a major influence on other journalists and fans at the time. 

In 2017, Mike Rubin in Infinite Journey to Inner Space: The Legacy of Drexciya, talked to Eshun specifically about this subject and he explained his sonic fiction process in relation to Drexciya. This is something that fans have been doing ever since (including The Unknown Writer and of course myself). His full answers are worth reading (article linked in comments) but I thought this section gets to the core of it. 

“It was a world that was only being filled in partially, track by track, and you were doing a lot of that navigating, with the help of the music and the track titles. In a sense, to be a Drexciya fan was to build the mythos by yourself.”- Kodwo Eshun

This powerful and poetic mythology has given a key to so many people to understand (or misunderstand) Drexciya but most importantly to discover their music and then decide for themselves what it might be all about. 

Drexciya themselves did appear to settle their origin once and for all in the Grava 4 (2002) sleeve notes. 'Earth has finally discovered Utopia (Drexciya Home Universe).' I like to think this more deep space rather than deep sea origin still leaves space for interactions with African slaves thrown overboard from their underwater base on Earth but like Eshun, it's up to all of us to figure out how the narrative/sonic fiction fits, everyone will find their own meanings and do it differently.