Biography
Eddie Fowlkes was born on December 24, 1962, in Detroit, Michigan. [2] [3] After attending a 1978 Charivari party with his older sisters where he saw DJ Darryl Shannon mixing records, Fowlkes requested a mixer for Christmas, and later made his DJ debut in the late 70s. [4] He was part of Juan Atkins's Deep Space DJ collective which included Art Payne, Keith Martin, and Derrick May, who was also Fowlkes's roommate. [5] [6] [7] In the 1980s, Fowlkes performed with three turntables, a mixer, wah-wah pedal and the TR-808 & 909 drum machines.
Kevin Saunderson said that seeing Fowlkes DJ at a fraternity party inspired him to get involved in the Deep Space Crew and become a better DJ.
After hearing a Cybotron performance, Fowlkes moved from being interested solely in DJing to creating his own records. Borrowing equipment from Atkins, he trained his ear and taught himself to play the keyboard over a couple of months. [5] While Fowlkes and May were roommates, Fowlkes built his studio in his bedroom and started working on his first record. [9] His first release under his own name was issued in 1986. That release on Metroplex Records, "Goodbye Kiss", [10] helped establish what would come to be known as Detroit techno. [5]
With the 1991 M.I.D. (Made In Detroit) release of Detroit Techno Soul, Fowlkes introduced the concept of techno soul because "Detroit ... is both house heads and techno heads." [6] This was followed by the 1993 Tresor release The Birth of Technosoul, featuring 3MB (Moritz von Oswald and Thomas Fehlmann). [2]
Fowlkes started releasing on his own label, City Boy Records, in 1993. Fowlkes also owns the Detroit Wax imprint on City Boy.
Eddie Fowlkes's handprints are cemented on the Detroit Historical Museum's Legends Plaza as a techno music pioneer. [11]
Jeff Mills, also known as "theWizard", is an American DJ, record producer, and composer. In the late 1980s Mills founded the techno collective Underground Resistance with fellow Detroit techno producers 'Mad' Mike Banks and Robert Hood but left the group to pursue a career as a solo artist in the early 90s. Mills founded the Chicago based Axis Records in 1992, which is responsible for the release of much of his solo work.
Tresor is a techno nightclub in Berlin and a record label.
Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mills, Kevin Saunderson, Blake Baxter, Drexciya, Mike Banks, James Pennington and Robert Hood. Artists like Terrence Parker and his lead vocalist, Nicole Gregory, set the tone for Detroit's piano techno house sound.
Juan Atkins, also known as Model 500 and Infiniti, is an American record producer and DJ from Detroit, Michigan. Mixmag has described him as "the original pioneer of Detroit techno." He has been a member of the Belleville Three, Cybotron, and Borderland.
Derrick May, also known as Mayday and Rhythim Is Rhythim, is an American electronic musician from Belleville, Michigan, United States. May is credited with pioneering techno music in the 1980s along with collaborators Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson, commonly known as The Belleville Three.
Underground Resistance are an American musical collective from Detroit, Michigan. Producing primarily Detroit techno since 1990 with a grungy four-track musical aesthetic, they are also renowned for their militant political and anti-corporate ethos.
Moritz von Oswald is a German record producer and percussionist from Hamburg and based in Berlin. He is a co-founder of the production duo and record label Basic Channel. He has collaborated with Juan Atkins, Carl Craig, and Nils Petter Molvær. He also leads the Moritz von Oswald Trio, which has featured musicians such as Vladislav Delay, Tony Allen, and Laurel Halo. The Stranger called him "one of the master architects of dub techno".
Metroplex is an American techno record label in Detroit, Michigan, United States, founded in 1985 by techno pioneer Juan Atkins. Juan Atkins did most of his work for the label under the pseudonyms Model 500 and Infiniti, and will occasionally use such names for live acts.
Robert Hood is an American electronic music producer and DJ. He is a founding member of the group Underground Resistance as a 'Minister of Information' with Mad Mike Banks and Jeff Mills. He is often considered to be one of the founders of minimal techno. In 1994, Hood founded the minimal techno label M-Plant in Detroit.
The Belleville Three are three American musicians, Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson, who are credited with inventing the Detroit techno genre in Belleville, Michigan.
Blake Baxter is an American techno musician, associated with the first wave of Detroit techno. AllMusic called him "perhaps the most underrated figure" of the early Detroit techno scene.
Maarten van der Vleuten is a Dutch producer, composer and recording artist born in Vught, The Netherlands in 1967. Between 1987 and 2007 he used over two dozens of aliases, producing Detroit techno, electro, house, experimental and ambient music.
Stewart Walker is an American electronic music record producer, who lives and works in Berlin. Walker's forté is live performance, a rarity in the world of beat-driven electronic music, and he is known for contributing to the development of minimal techno with his 1999 album Stabiles.
430 West Records is an independent record label based in Detroit, Michigan, United States, formed in 1990 by Lawrence Burden, Lenny Burden, and Lynell Burden, just months after recording their debut record for Derrick Mays' Transmat label. 430 West was formed as an outlet for the Burden Brothers' own productions. Later it was expanded to be the home for releases by electronic music artists Jay Denham, Terrence Parker, Eddie Fowlkes, Aux 88, Wild Planet, and Gerald Mitchell, among others. In 1998, 430 West also became the musical home for the trio's youngest brothers, Lance Burden and Lorne Burden.
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (BPM). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often characterized by a repetitive four on the floor beat. Artists may use electronic instruments such as drum machines, sequencers, and synthesizers, as well as digital audio workstations. Drum machines from the 1980s such as Roland's TR-808 and TR-909 are highly prized, and software emulations of such retro instruments are popular.
Deep Heat 5 – Feed the Fever is a continuation of Telstar Records' Deep Heat compilation series released in February 1990. Containing 32 dance tracks, it continued the series' success, reaching #1 on the Compilations Chart and being awarded a UK gold disc for album sales in excess of 100,000 copies. As with the rest of the series, the album features dance music styles of the time including techno, acid house and hip house.
Detroit, Michigan, is a major center in the United States for the creation and performance of music, and is best known for three developments: Motown, early punk rock, and techno.
Kelley Hand, known professionally as Kelli Hand and K-HAND, was a musician and DJ from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Hand was widely credited with opening the door for Black women's participation in the previously male-dominated techno and electronic music communities during the 1990s and was known as the "First Lady of Detroit techno". A prolific DJ with an "impossibly deep catalogue", Hand continued to produce and perform music up until her death in 2021.
Alan D. Oldham sometimes performing as DJ T-1000, is an American techno DJ, producer, label owner, graphic artist, and painter.
Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit is a 1988 compilation of early Detroit techno tracks released on the Virgin Records UK imprint 10 Records. The compilation's title helped establish the term "techno" as the name for electronic dance music emerging out of Detroit in the 1980s.
