The Belleville Three | |
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 The Belleville Three performing at the Detroit Masonic Temple in 2017. From left to right: Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Belleville, Michigan |
| Genres | Detroit techno |
| Labels | Blue Raincoat Music |
| Members |
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| Website | thebellevillethree |
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, MI.
Kevin Saunderson was born in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of nine he moved to Michigan, where he attended Belleville High School in Belleville, a town some 30 miles from Detroit, in the more rural area near its suburbs. [1] In school he befriended Derrick May and Juan Atkins, both of whom had been born in Detroit but later moved to Belleville. The three were among the few black students in their high school, and Saunderson later commented, "we three kind of gelled right away." The setting affected how they experienced music. "We perceived the music differently than you would if you encountered it in dance clubs. We'd sit back with the lights off and listen to records by Bootsy and Yellow Magic Orchestra. We never took it as just entertainment, we took it as a serious philosophy," recalled May. [2] Belleville was located near several automobile factories, which provided well-paying jobs to a racially integrated workforce. "Everybody was equal," Atkins explained in an interview. [2] "So what happened is that you’ve got this environment with kids that come up somewhat snobby, ‘cos hey, their parents are making money working at Ford or GM or Chrysler, been elevated to a foreman, maybe even a white-collar job." European acts like Kraftwerk were popular among middle-class black youth.
The three teenage friends bonded while listening to an eclectic mix of music: Kraftwerk, Parliament, Prince, the B-52s. The electronic and funk sounds that influenced the Belleville Three came primarily from a 5-hour late-night radio show called The Midnight Funk Association, broadcast in Detroit by DJ Charles "The Electrifying Mojo" Johnson on WGPR. Juan Atkins was inspired to buy a synthesizer after hearing Parliament. [2] Atkins was also the first in the group to take up turntables, teaching May and Saunderson how to DJ. [3]
Under the name Deep Space Soundworks, Atkins and May began to DJ on Detroit's party circuit. By 1981, Johnson was playing the record mixes recorded by the Belleville Three, who were also branching out to work with other musicians. [4] The trio traveled to Chicago to investigate the house music scene there, particularly Chicago DJs Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles. [3] The trio began to formulate the synthesis of this dance music with the mechanical sounds of groups like Kraftwerk, in a way that reflected post-industrialist Detroit. An obsession with the future and its machines is reflected in much of their music, because, according to Atkins, Detroit is the most advanced in the transition away from industrialism. [5]
While attending Washtenaw Community College, Atkins met Rick Davis and formed Cybotron with him. Their first single "Alleys of Your Mind"—recorded on their Deep Space label in 1981—sold 15,000 copies, and the success of two follow-up singles, "Cosmic Cars" and "Clear," led the California-based label Fantasy to sign the duo and release their album, Enter. After Cybotron split due to creative differences, Atkins began recording as Model 500 on his own label, Metroplex, in 1985. His landmark single, "No UFOs," soon arrived. Eddie "Flashin" Fowlkes, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson also recorded on Metroplex.
Although the Detroit musicians—the Belleville Three and other early pioneers like Fowlkes and James Pennington—were a close-knit group who shared equipment and studio space, and who helped each other with projects, friction developed. Each member of the Belleville Three branched off on his own record label. May's Transmat began as a sublabel imprint of Metroplex. Saunderson founded KMS based on his own initials. They set up shop in close proximity to one another, in Detroit's Eastern Market district.
All of the Belleville Three have worked under many different names and titles. Derrick May saw great success under the name Rhythim is Rhythim, his moniker when he released his landmark "Strings of Life." Kevin Saunderson's most commercially recognized project was Inner City with vocalist Paris Grey. [1] Juan Atkins has been lauded as the "Godfather of Techno," while May is thought of as the "Innovator" and Saunderson is often referred to as the "Elevator." [6] [7]
Inspired by Chicago's house clubs, May, Atkins and Saunderson started a club of their own in downtown Detroit, named the Music Institute. The club helped unite a previously scattered scene into an underground "family," where Saunderson, Atkins and May, DJed with fellow pioneers like Fowlkes and Blake Baxter. [8] It allowed for collaboration, and helped inspire what would become the second wave of Detroit-area techno, which included artists whom the Belleville Three had influenced and mentored. [9]
In 1988, dance music entrepreneur Neil Rushton approached the Belleville Three to license their work for release in the UK. To define the Detroit sound as being distinct from Chicago house, Rushton and the Belleville Three chose the word "techno" for their tracks, a term that Atkins had been using since his Cybotron days ("Techno City" was an early single). [10] However, the trio from Belleville had some reservations about the culture that surrounded the drug-filled techno subculture abroad. Derrick May in particular continues to advocate that drugs are not necessary to participate in good music. [11]
In 2000, the first annual Detroit Electronic Music Festival was held, and in 2004 May assumed control of the festival, renamed Movement. He invested his own funds into the festival, and "got severely wounded financially." [12] Saunderson helmed the festival, renamed FUSE IN, the following year. Saunderson, May and Carl Craig all performed but did not produce the festival in 2006, [13] when it was again called Movement. Saunderson returned to perform at the 2007 Movement as well. [14]
In 2017, Atkins, Saunderson and May began working on the Belleville Three as an official collaborative effort. Despite being labelled as the Belleville Three since the late 1980s, due in no small part to the British press, they had resisted official collaboration in the hope of distancing themselves from that moniker. However, three decades later it was clear that the mantle of The Belleville Three had stayed intact, and there was a clear demand to see them operate as a group. They launched this project at Coachella 2017. [15]
The Belleville Three continue to tour internationally. Derrick May says that his mission continues to be "to save the world from bad music." [9]
Belleville is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A western suburb of Detroit, Belleville is located roughly 29 miles (46.7 km) southwest of downtown Detroit, and 18 miles (29.0 km) southeast of Ann Arbor, and is completely surrounded by Van Buren Township. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 3,991.
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.
Movement Electronic Music Festival is an annual electronic dance music event held in the birthplace of Techno, Detroit, each Memorial Day weekend since 2006. Previous electronic music festivals held at Hart Plaza on Memorial Day weekend include Detroit Electronic Music Festival (2000–2002), Movement (2003–2004) and Fuse-In (2005). The four different festival names reflect completely separate and distinct producers, brands and directions. All of these festivals presented performances by musicians and DJs that emphasized the progressive qualities of the culture surrounding electronic music including the celebration of Detroit being the birthplace of the popular electronic music subgenre Techno.
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.
Carl Craig is an American electronic music producer, DJ, and founder of the record label Planet E Communications. He is known as a leading figure and pioneer in the second wave of Detroit techno artists during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He has recorded under his given name in addition to a variety of aliases, including Psyche, BFC, and Innerzone Orchestra.
Cybotron is an American electro music group formed in 1980 by Juan Atkins and Richard "3070" Davis in Detroit. Cybotron had a number of singles now considered classics and style-defining works of the electro genre, particularly "Clear" and the group's debut, "Alleys of Your Mind", as well as "Cosmic Cars" and "R-9".
Kevin Maurice Saunderson is an American electronic dance music DJ and record producer. He is famous for being a member of a trio, along with Juan Atkins and Derrick May, who came to be known as the Belleville Three, who are often credited to being among the pioneers and originators of techno: in particular this act helped define Detroit techno, the earliest style of this music genre. Born in New York, at the age of nine he moved to Belleville, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, where at Belleville High School he befriended the other members of the trio.
The Electrifying Mojo is an American radio personality. He is a disc jockey based in Detroit, Michigan whose on-air journey of musical and social development shaped a generation of music-lovers in Detroit and throughout southeastern Michigan and Canada and was of importance to the development of Detroit techno.
Inner City is an American electronic music group that formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1987. The group was originally composed of the record producer and composer Kevin Saunderson and the Chicago, Illinois, vocalist Paris Grey. Saunderson is renowned as one of the Belleville Three—along with Juan Atkins and Derrick May—high school friends who later originated the Detroit techno sound. In February 2018, Billboard magazine ranked them as the 69th most successful dance artists of all-time.
Richard Davis is an American electronic music composer and producer, hailing from Detroit, Michigan.
Network Records was an independent record label founded in Birmingham, England, in 1988 by Neil Rushton and Dave Barker.
"Clear" is a 1983 electro song performed by the American group Cybotron, and composed by Cybotron members Juan Atkins and Richard Davis.
Stacey Pullen is an American techno musician based in Detroit, Michigan, United States.
Eddie Fowlkes is an American techno DJ. He was influential to the early Detroit techno scene.
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 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.
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.
Abdul Qadim Haqq, also known as Haqq and The Ancient, is an American visual artist who was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He is considered Detroit's number one ambassador of art for world-renowned techno music artists. Haqq's artwork is featured worldwide on classic records by Detroit Techno record labels, namely the records of Juan Atkins, Metroplex, Derrick May, Transmat, Underground Resistance, Kevin Saunderson, Carl Craig. Abdul Qadim Haqq has been serving the techno music community through Techno Visual Art since 1989. His artwork continues to inspire fans all over the world.
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.
"No UFO's" is a 1985 techno song by Juan Atkins under the alias of Model 500. It was released on Atkins own label Metroplex. The song was the first track released after the split of Atkins' previous group Cybotron. The music followed similar themes of the previous group with science fiction and alienation but featured less of a song structure than Cybotron's music leading the track to be often identified as one of the earliest techno songs.
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