 Inspired by a nice article in Danish paper Weekendavisen (Online article here in Danish)I'm going to do a small post on techno legend Derrick May. Somewhere in the late 80's May turned house inside out and invented what is refered to as techno today. This mainly happened with the help of Frankie Knuckles championed track 'The Strings of Life' which. Of course not alone, he is part of what you might call the techno equivalent of the gang of four, along with Carl Craig, Kevin Saunderson and Juan Atkins.
May's releases in general only span half a decade (from around 1987 until 1992), he does small pieces every know and the for computer games or films, but nothing major. He still runs the Transmat label, and recently did a film on the techno genre called High Tech Soul.
Whats interesting about May, besides the music obviously, is his always socio-conscious approach to techno. He always stresses how music, and especially techno with it's 'perfect' sounds is at odds with reality - especially that of his hometown Detroit. His point being something along the lines of techno(logy) is great but it should never be God.
For your enjoyment today two classics more influential than you can imagine:
Derrick May - The Strings of Life
Derrick May - The Dance
Get classic compilation 'Innovator' hereLabels: Derrick May, Frankie Knuckles |
