The Detroit Techno House

I always get excited to check out a venue I’ve never been too before. There have been events going down at Sin for quite some time now, but Friday night was the first time we made it down there. Arriving around midnight, Vinsanity was droppin‘ the tech/house jams, and the crowd was, well, scarce. I have too say, nice clean place, huge bar, good amount of dancing room, but a fuckin‘ stupid bartender. Sans that, I thought it was all right. I enjoyed Vinsanity’s set, but the sound kept cutting out in the middle of a track. That’s one fucked up thing about digital Djing; sometimes your computer decides to pimp smack you mid-set. That shit don’t happen with vinyl! Besides that it was a decent set. Kyle Geiger was on deck next, and he seemed to have similar “sound problems”. He had a straight techno set, but honestly neither I, Art Martial, nor our boy Tony were really feeling it. The rest of the evening was, well, interesting. Trying to find Funk Night, Sinistarr playing some twisted drum and bass @ the works, and other interesting shit. I won’t bore you with details, so here’s a couple videos from Club Sin. Peace.

It’s good to see the cool weather kickin off with some good electronic music. Friday night after hearing some fucking awesome jazz up at Bakers Keyboard Lounge, we made it down to The Whitestar in Hamtramck to check out Skylab 2000. I was pumped for the promise of some old school rave-type jams performed on some analog gear. I was defiantly not disappointed. I got to meet Dennis aka Skylab 2000 before he went on, super nice dude who was all about the music, and was gracious enough to let me shoot some video of the first part of his set. I refuse to categorize his music, because it reminded me too much of those past warehouse days, when we spent less time discussing electronic music categorically, and more time just dancing to it. Let’s just say it was nostalgic and fantastic at once. I had to break up the video into two parts, fuckin’ youtube! Enjoy.

With the Detroit Techno scene being so hit and miss these days, it is really nice to see some people that still know how to throw parties. I made it down to Nove’ in Ferndale last night to witness the Martinez’s Brother’s second appearance in town. I walked in about 12:15 to Mike Brown killin it. This is about the 3rd time I’ve seen him and this dude is not meant to be slept on. Spinning a combination of techno, house, and things in between, got the crowd moving and hyped up for the Martinez Brother’s set. When they went on I was expecting them to play some straight up house but instead these kids switched it up and banged tech all night. Maybe they were inspired by the Detroit vibe or something but it was great to see some versatility. They have so much energy and there style and skill is better than most seasoned veterans. Radio Skool is definitely the hottest thing happening in Detroit, and despite the limited amount of venues and vibe, are able to create something that gives me hope for a better tomorrow. Like Wavy Gravy said, “Were just going to be groovy and spread that groovyness around to everyone else”, and everybody left skooled and funkier than before. I didn’t see Stacey Pullen spin though, so I’m guessing he went on before Mike Brown. Very humble of him to take the background. All in all despite a strange clubby crowd and weird venue, Radio Skool threw down.

Friday night started the weekends festivities off with a trip down to the Jazzfest for Chick Corea and Stanley Clark. Holy shit that was off the chain! I have never see anybody play bass like Stanley Clark. It was just totally fantastic. What does this have to do with techno? Overall, jazz has had a powerful influence on many genre’s of music, including some of the predecessors of techno, like funk, disco, and avante-garde rock. The jazz influence is quite noticeable in certain sub-genre’s of electronic music, especially Chicago house. Anyway, I felt privileged to see these two legends play, and was glad I made it down there for it.
Saturday we trekked down to the 5 Elements gallery for the latest installment of Tour Detroit. After seeing Monty Luke tear shit up last weekend, I was definitely looking forward to seeing him again. This party was a real miss however. There was like no crowd, just a very small group of some “arty” types who were in their own worlds. The venue could be all right, but with all the lights on in the backroom illuminating all the stacks of chairs, I felt like I was in a school cafeteria. The music was some really sleepy house and semi-ironic vocal tracks, but nothing that really made me want to dance. We didn’t even end up staying for Monty Luke’s set, that place just sucked the life right out of us with it’s overall dullness.
Keep your eye’s open for a mid week review, Terrance Parker is playing at THC in Hamtramck on Wednesday, something definitely not to be missed.