Slaying Dancefloors at Will .Count Zer0.

It’s all about the Made in Detroit stage.  Please please please don’t let it be in the “underground”.

http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=10514

If you ask me, these Detroit heads should be booked at the festival every year, but in reality, they’ve only performed once or twice

Amp Fiddler
Blake Baxter
Claude Young
Rick Wade
Rob Hood
Niko Marks
Theo Parrish
James Pennington
Anthony “Shake” Shakir
DJ Dex aka Nomadico

And who wouldn’t agree that there should pretty much be a UR stage every year, not just one or two UR performers?  Why this hasn’t happened yet is beyond me.  Detroit IS UR.

Who would you like to see play the festival more often?

Obviously, Detroit area electronic dance music promoters Paxahau aren’t flat-out racists.  (though judging from the NSFW picture after the jump the jury is out on whether or not they’re misogynists! ;) I mean, they couldn’t be totally racist, they have booked some black performers at the annual Memorial Day weekend outdoor festival which they’ve kept alive for the past three years.  For that they can be thanked, and perhaps even commended.   For many of us techno nerds, though, something changed when they took over.  It has been mentioned on the 313 list and likely elsewhere as well that the festival was missing something, and some even mentioned racial aspects, but I’ve finally been able to put a number on the problem.

My recent series of DEMF related posts began with a key figure:  the population of the city of Detroit, Michigan is 80% black, 12% white.  Now, granted, it would probably be unrealistic for the ratio of white to black artists at the festival to ever approach the population figures, but you’d think that the idea would be to represent the character of the city pretty closely, right?  Well, for the first few years that was the case…  (hit the jump for the figures) (more…)

The year with the highest percentage of performers from Detroit was 2003, with a whopping 68.35%, with 2000 an extremely close second with 68.25%.  Here’s the rest of the breakdown.

Year %Detroit
2003 68.35%
2000 68.25%
2005 62.37%
2008 48.94%
2001 47.37%
2002 44.12%
2004 36.07%
2009 35.62%
2007 33.73%
2006 33.67%

See anything telling about that last figure? More tomorrow. For now, behind the cut/after the jump find a list of artists who have played DEMF that I had trouble finding much information about for whatever reason.

(more…)

Including this years pending festival, (and presented here without editorial comment!) here’s a list of performers who (will) have played DEMF more than three times, in descending order based on number of appearances.

10      Kevin Saunderson
8        Kenny Larkin (2002 and 2006 are the years he didn’t play)
7        Stacey Pullen
6        Mike Huckaby
5        Carl Craig
5        Clark Warner
5        Dan Bell
5        Michael Geiger
5        Mike “Agent X” Clark
5        Mike Grant
5        Richie Hawtin
4        Buzz Goree
4        Delano Smith
4        DJ Godfather
4        Juan Atkins
4        Magda
4        Marco Carola
4        Matt Clarke
4        Minx
4        Norm Talley
4        Anthony “Shake” Shakir

134 of the 572 unique performers have played more than once.   Stay tuned for more stats from past festivals.

While the above performers certainly deserve their bookings, it’s a crime that Terrence Dixon  and Omar S have never played the festival.  T-1000 has only played once, Eddie Fowlkes only twice.  Perhaps they were invited but declined.  Derrick May is notoriously uninterested in performing, from what I understand.

Image of the poster showing the full lineup for the first DEMF in 2000

City of Detroit population 2009: 12% white 82% black
Paxahau’s DEMF 2009 performers:  67% white 33%black

Am I going?  Yes.  Do I reserve the right to call out nonsense like this?  Yes.

ETA: Only 35% of the 2009 performers are from Detroit or Detroit vicinity (Windsor, other parts of nearby Michigan).

Notable 2009 Omissions:

Rick Wilhite
Theo Parrish
Omar S
M. Pittman
Alton Miller
Kenny Dixon Jr.
Todd Osborne playing as Osborne (rather than with Starski or as Soundmurderer)

This various artists EP on the Hej label is absolutely ridiculous.  Just the kind of dark, futuristic, borderline mystical brain melting stuff I want to play, and all American made too!  From Detroit heads Andy Toth, John Overfiend, Punisher, and Sassmouth.  Wicked.  I’m buying the whole thing and can’t imagine every track won’t make it on my next mix.

Well, DJ ESP Woody McBride’s gone and done it.  He digitally released the same track at three different BPMs.  Kind of brilliant, kind of redundant considering the technology available to today’s digital DJ, but still kind of awesome and definitely in the temper of the times.  It’s not anywhere near his best tracks (”basketball heroes” or “i’ll have some” from the stairway to headphones EP) but it’s fine, and definitely interesting at three different tempos.

Today a classic mix of funky house from the mid 90s from Pittsburgh DJ Dave Breakwell.

This is definitely no secret to many dance music producers, but it’s an important lesson for those who don’t know.  The best tracks are the ones that do the most with little filigree and a streamlined gear list.  Take, for example, the story of the making of one of the single greatest techno cuts of all time, Orbital’s “Chime”.