ISO50

RSS

Archive for the detroit Tag

Synth Pioneers Pt. 2: Detroit

Posted by Sam

291carlcraig

With GM in the news, I was thinking about Detroit tonight. Detroit was the city I grew up closest to. My father grew up here and his dad worked on the Mercury Zephyr line.

Growing up near the city, the musical influence was huge. On any given weekend in the mid-to-late nineties, late night radio would mix up everything from the classic Art Of Noise song “Moments In Love” to local ghetto tech beats and new drum and bass coming out of the UK.

Much has been made about the city and why it’s music sounds the way it does. The desolate beauty, the mechanized auto factories and even the isolated water-ensconced nature of the state. All if it is true.

Here are four tracks that give me that Detroit feeling. These not the more discussed and celebrated classics, but more personal favorites.

Psyche – From Beyond (Transmat)

[audio:frombeyond.mp3]

Carl Craig is a real legend and continues to impress. This song, under the Psyche alias is perhaps one of my favorite tracks ever. It has a crazy spell to it. It’s not quite techno and it pre-dates the breaks and jungle genres. It’s on it’s own planet. Pure late night driving music to roam the vacant freeways.

Cybotron – Cosmic Raindance (Fantasy)

[audio:cosmicraindance.mp3]

Note: Please play on a proper stereo or headphones as the bassline is what holds this all together.  Juan Atkins (“The Originator”) is arguably the greatest groove maker of the Detroit techno school. Cybotron, his group with Richard Davis and John Housely is responsible for some of the most seminal cuts that have been sampled and re-interpreted endlessly. I remember driving down to the store Record Time in our friend’s Ford Fiesta, listening to this on repeat and his subs would rattle the entire frame.  Simply majestic.

Drexciya – Digital Tsunami (Tresor)

[audio:digitaltsunami.mp3]

Drexciya is the most mythical duo of the Detroit techno school. The duo of the late James Stinson and Gerald Donald (also of Dopplereffekt, more on that later) made aggressive yet liquid odes to the ocean and it’s provence. This was a later cut, but got me into their brand of mutated electro. Their original pressings fetch a pretty penny on eBay and with good reason.

Suburban Knight – Collaboration Alpha (Peacefrog)

[audio:collaborationalpha.mp3]

As part of the vaunted Underground Resistance Crew, Suburban Knight racked up a Detroit classic with “The Art Of Stalking” and also co-wrote tracks with Kevin Saunderson for his seminal and wildly successful Inner City project. This is a more recent track, and not a “classic” by any means, but I chose it because it’s important to recognize that Detroit techno is not a vintage style, it’s a methodology and an ethos that will continue to exist.

Tycho + ISO50 Live Videos

Posted by Scott


Tycho Live @ Magic Stick Detroit – Link


Tycho Live @ Magic Stick Detroit – Link

It’s been nice being home this weekend after the past couple weeks on the road. PackardPlantz was kind enough to post up some video from the Detroit show (see above). I’ve been using Vidvox’s VDMX for the live visuals. VDMX is an incredibly powerful, modular, realtime video app for OS X. It employs Apple CoreImage to leverage the GPU directly and the performance is pretty amazing. It can handle full HD video with multiple layers of QC effects running over three decks with no problems. For this trip I brought along the brand new Vestax VCM-600 (pictured below) which I’ve really enjoyed working with.

vcm600_3
After my set I had the honor of doing live visuals for Telefon Tel Aviv which was really an amazing experience to say the least (see video below or click here to view). Will Calcutt shot the video with a Canon 5D MKII and it looks pretty amazing. He showed me some other shots he got of Matthew Dear’s DEMF closing set which really showed off the range of the camera. I was pretty much sold after seeing those, unfortunately he hasn’t posted them yet. Suffices to say, the 5D MKII is the strong frontrunner for HD-capable DSLR’s in my book right now.


Telefon Tel Aviv w/ ISO50 Visuals – Magic Stick, Detroit – Link

Just want to say thanks again for everyone who made it out to the Tampa, Detroit, and Toronto shows. I had a blast playing and hope to be back soon. You can find a few more videos on Youtube here: Tycho Detroit Videos

Live In Detroit This Saturday

Posted by Scott

Tycho / ISO50 Live Detroit
Still relaxing in Miami before heading up to Detroit for the Ghostly 10 Year show at Magic Stick this Saturday. I’ll be playing with Telefon Tel Aviv, Deastro and Michna. You can score tickets early for $15 ($20 @ the door) here. Hope to see you out.

After that I’ll be heading up to Toronto for the Wednesday (5/27) show at the Drake. You may have read Sam’s earlier post on that show, but in case you missed it he included a preview of the next Tycho single in the form of Manual’s superb Coastal Brake remix. Check it out!