Detroit techno is one of my greatest passions, ever since being introduced to Jeff Mills in the mid-90s, but I've only ever heard it specific contexts (two, to be specific: headphones, dance club), and the innovation of it never truly registered until I heard the pianist Vijay Iyer and his trio at my university last year. There was a moment in their live performance in which they locked into a syncopated, repetitive groove with single-chord piano riff and they rode it out for quite a long time, with the piano riff gradually getting more frenzied, in an acoustic approximation of the live tweaking of distortion and effects often employed by DJs.
At the time I was shocked to hear this music I've loved for so long in an academic setting, performed by a Harvard professor, no less. After buying the CD, I learned the song was titled "Hood," a tribute to the producer Robert Hood, whose track "RAGE" (as Underground Resistance) was a favorite early in my electronic music obsession. At that time, we knew nothing about Underground Resistance--their names were not on the record, there was no sleeve or liner notes, they performed with their faces covered by ski masks so there were no photographs of them on the burgeoning internet. It was a record that felt dangerous, much like Punk Rock must've felt for the generation before me, and Rock & Roll for the generation before that. More than that, it felt like a secret and talismanic thing for a small-town kid from Oklahoma to own (or even know about), a new identity outside my rural upbringing.
And then here it was, in the most genteel of settings, but still retaining its anger and power. Techno is protest music, full stop. And we need protest music in 2017.
So here's "RAGE:"
And here's "Hood" (beginning at about 13:25):
And, why not, here's "Automatic:"
I appreciate the opportunity to share music on this forum. Thanks so much to Kathleen and Stacey.
-R
