FOUNDATIONS: DETROIT ESCALATOR CO.
Some of the most thoughtful, optimistic and elegant music this culture has produced.
Friends.
It’s Friday and I’m relaying the Foundations.
This week we’re heading back to the 313, for some of the most thoughtful, optimistic and elegant music this culture has produced.
DETROIT ESCALATOR CO.
Detroit Escalator Co. is the work of Neil Ollivierra, who made his mark in the early Detroit techno scene as promoter of The Music Institute, Detroit’s answer to such legendary house and garage clubs as New York’s Paradise Garage and Chicago’s Powerplant.
Ollivierra struck up a close working relationship and friendship with Music Institute resident Derrick May, whose extend 8 hour sets were an important proving ground for the tracks and producers who would define Detroit techno: from Suburban Knight and Inner City to Model 500. The Derrick May set I shared a few weeks ago may well have been recorded at the Music Institute.
On the back of this relationship, Ollivierra was subsequently invited to run May's legendary Transmat label. A position he held from 1994 to 2001, overseeing one of the most important imprints in electronic music history.
Alongside the day job, he was developing his own artistic vision. One rooted in synth-driven electronica and the city he loved, yet sonically distinct from the more functional and club-focused output of his peers.
Inspired by late night excursions across Detroit, gathering field recordings and soaking up the slowly emerging post-industrial decay of what was once the heartland of the American automobile industry, Ollivierra produced some of the most thoughtful, optimistic and elegant music of the 1990s.
SOUNDTRACK [313]
Detroit Escalator Co.’s debut LP, released on UK techno label Ferox in 1996.
For me this is one of the standout records of the 1990s. A truly unique artistic statement that sounds as fresh today as it did 30 years ago.
Ethereal synths, bright, optimistic melodies and delicate, almost flickering percussion. Ollivierra’s Detroit is equal parts powerful and vulnerable, technological and human, playful and profound.
Pitchfork do a wonderful job of reviewing it here.
Enjoy.
BLACK BUILDINGS
Ollivierra completely aces the supposedly ‘difficult’ second record, released on Peacefrog in 2000.
There are too many good tracks to mention here, perhaps better simply to say that it is ‘all killer’ (an acheivement in itself) and that this is a deeply human album of some of the richest home-listening music you will ever encounter. Sublime.
You should also make sure to check out the Excerpts LP, which brings together tracks from a variety of different 12”s… and just so you don’t miss it - one of my personal favourites, the brooding masterpiece that is Plumb:
ORIGINS
On a final note, I’d also like to draw people's attention to this quote from the Music Origins Project which reinforces the points made in my film Techno is Not Black:
"The MI, through Derrick, brought a European vibe to our city, something that there never was before. Before, we were just a bunch of middle-class black kids who read The Face and GQ and Melody Maker and dreamt about what London or New York would be like; now ABC and Depeche Mode came to the MI in its heyday to witness the relentless Mayday at work, and to hang out with us. Real Brits! Real accents! In our club!"
Again, this is not about ‘ownership’, it’s about historical accuracy and placing credit where credit is due. Techno, like every other area of electronic music, is a grand collaboration between cultures and individual artists from all races and walks of life. That’s one of the things that makes it so compelling.
Fuck the tribalism and politics.
It's all love.
And music.
See ya.
Rubin