The Synths And Drum Machines Behind Early Detroit Techno
Like all good things in life, techno music can be traced back to Parliament-Funkadelic.
The story starts in the early 1980s with three high-school students from Belleville, Michigan; Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May. The trio, who would become known as the “Belleville Three,” would sit around for hours listening to electronic and funk music on a late-night radio show called "The Midnight Funk Association" on WGPR, hosted by underground DJ, The Electrifying Mojo.
After hearing "Flashlight" by Parliament-Funkadelic, Atkins bought a Korg MS-10 synthesizer and started cutting tracks on his cassette player.
Atkins: "When I first heard synthesizers dropped on records it was great… like UFOs landing on records, so I got one... It wasn't any one particular group that turned me on to synthesizers, but 'Flashlight’ by Parliament was the first record I heard where maybe 75 percent of the production was electronic."
Later that year, the Belleville Three booked their first set and prepared to debut their new, experimental electronic music. Life would never be the same again.
May once described Detroit techno music as “a complete mistake...like George Clinton and Kraftwerk caught in an elevator, with only a sequencer to keep them company.” Now, almost 40 years later, their influence can be heard on countless hit records across multiple genres. Not bad for a group high school kids in their parent’s basement.
In honor of this weekend's Movement festival in Detroit, we want to celebrate "Techno City” by looking back at the gear that made it all possible.
This is an excerpt from a post originally published on Vintage King. Read the full post here!
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