Drexciya - The Last Storm

The sea as a non-place for aquatic resistance. The Ocean as a planet for outcasts, a deterritorialized place, immense prairies of liquidity on which to undertake a journey made of courage and resistance. The Drexciyans are the children of the enslaved women imprisoned on the ships that sailed out into the ocean during the slave trade, thrown overboard and raised in the depths of the abyss. They grow up as amphibious guerrillas, fighting for justice and for their own history, with the founding ideal of bringing the African-American people back to the motherland, Africa. The Drexciyan landscape is home to cities of bubbles, red hills and the city of Lardossa, where a state of absolute carefreeness and tranquility reigns, everything is simpler and it's like being continually in a trance state. Amphibious warriors train in jujitsu moves, while tiny aquatic particles swirl around a resistance that rises from below, from the depths, from the underground.

To best approach Drexciya's catalogue, you first need to become part of their world, to be able to dive into it, into that ocean so deep that sunlight can never reach it, where what shines instead are the sounds and electroid interference of one of the most visionary techno acts of Detroit's second generation.

James Stinson, born in Detroit on September 14, 1969, the mastermind behind Drexciya.

A simple sentence that a few years ago would have been worth its weight in gold to any music publication on the planet. The Drexciya project captivated for 11 years in the most absolute secrecy. No one knew who its members were, or even how many there were. No photos, no engagement with the world outside its aquatic genesis. The few interviews we've managed to track down are almost all from the internet, given in the final years of Stinson's career. Like many Detroit producers, James too was swept up by the radio waves of Electrifying Mojo, the disc jockey who did no small part in spreading techno far and wide. The first revelation came by chance, listening to his radio show while riding his bike through the streets of east Detroit. From the little radio he always carried with him came the song of liberation, "Alleys Of Your Mind" by Cybotron, the proto-techno group formed by Juan Atkins and Rick Davis, in which the electro sound was pushed to its limit, transforming in the future - thanks to Atkins alone - into the word "techno".

From that moment on, Electrifying Mojo's shows became James Stinson's reason for living, and after eight years of electronic epiphanies, on September 18, 1989, he woke up in the middle of the night shouting "Drexciya"! Once again, the imagination proves more fascinating than impossible - the beauty of it all lies not only in sonic scope, but in limits, to be overcome without hesitation and with courage.

After that night, James began seriously thinking about a musical project, but the first Drexciya creation would only see the light of day after three years of experimentation and sound tinkering.

No one knows who he spent those three years with or how, but in the end Stinson chose a partner of equal genius, with different and unprecedented shades of his own: his name was Gerald Donald. Gifted with a sharp sense of humor and a vision complementary to that of Jeff Mills and Robert Hood, in which electronics rule the technological future. It would be Gerald who defined post-Drexciya electro in his many subsequent projects, gifting us records of enchanting beauty. Under the names Dopplereffekt, Der Zyklus, Arpanet, Japanese Telecom and Heinrich Mueller, the other half of Drexciya carried the legacy of the electro sound into the future.

Drexciya revealed themselves to the world in 1991, right in the midst of the Submerge frenzy, the distribution channel for the entire Underground Resistance crew, headquarters of the best of Detroit's second wave of techno.

It all begins with Deep Sea Dweller (12" Submerge): the standouts are "Sea Quake" and "Sea Snake". The first, on the A-side, is a techno assault full of bubbles and slips, interference and keyboards that float. "Sea Snake" is more visionary, you can feel Gerald Donald's hand in it, a cartoonish pulsing bassline crafting a sure-fire hit for the Lardossian "hot of the pops".

Two sabbatical years later, the future classic Bubble Metropolis (12" UR) breaks the silence with the numbers of "Positron Island", which picks up the ideal set out by "Sea Quake", the electro experiments of "Beyond The Abyss" and the masterpiece "Bubble Metropolis". This second chapter outlines the Drexciyan universe in a less haphazard way, drawing many listeners closer to their ocean.

Modular Enhancement (12" Rephlex 1993) lands on Rephlex (the label headed by the no less visionary Richard D. James) and flaunts partisan, revolutionary anthems for the post-atomic generation.

In 1994 came The Unknown Aquazone (12" Submerge 1994), perhaps the high point of Drexciyan thought. "Living On The Edge" is pure techno experimentation, "Aquabahn" is Stinson turned into music. "Lardossen Funk" belongs on Obi-Wan Kenobi's iPod, "Red Hill Of Lardossa" bears Gerald's weight and swells like a whirlpool caught between two ocean currents, "Aqua Jujidsu" recalls the atmospheres of "Beyond The Abyss", and "Take Your Mind" I once heard whistled by a parrot at a friend's house.

That same year saw the release of Aquatic Invasion (12" UR 1994), with one track above all: the shimmering "Wavejumper", pivotal for the group's future and a catalyst for that strand of techno influenced by Kraftwerk-style electro that would pump endless doses of heroin into the veins of Hell and the entire International Deejay Gigolo catalogue (fittingly, the label would later become a production base for Gerald Donald). Minimal and hypnotic, dirty and hallucinogenic, "Wavejumper" is a masterpiece.

In 1995 Warp released The Journey Home, led by "Black Sea". It seemed to be the final chapter: after this 12", Drexciya in fact announced the end of the project. A key factor was Gerald Donald's discontent, perhaps worn down by all the secrecy imposed on him during the early Drexciyan era.

The following year, however, came the triumphant The Return of Drexciya (12" UR 1996), where tracks like "You Don't Know" and "Bang Bang" can only reveal just how much genius James Stinson possessed. This marks the end of the first phase, made up solely of 12"s, which underscores the duo's absolute importance in the entire history of electronic music.

In this first phase, small parallel projects had already begun to appear: under the name L.A.M., Stinson released work for Hardwax, the label headed by another legendary, faceless duo, Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus (Basic Channel). Under this name he released Balance of Terror Ep in 1992, in which his sound grew darker and less ironic.

In 1995 an actual album even emerged, under the moniker Elecktroids. Behind that name were hidden James Stinson, Gerald Donald and Ultradyne, another Detroit group formed by Alex Lugo with his partner Dennis Richardson. The four of them produced Elektroworld (Warp, 1995), a tribute album to Stinson's heroes, Kraftwerk. The sound is electro through and through, carrying a clear desire to drift toward "electric cafés" or "trans-European trains", with Gerald Donald's trademark humor, welcoming us to the future ("Future Tone") and unleashing the classic "Japanese Electronics", an ode to Kraftwerk-style electro that would rarely be matched by other producers afterward.

1997 is a year of archiving. Submerge invites James and Gerald to put together a sort of greatest hits, later better identified as the (double) collection of singles released so far, titled The Quest (Submerge, 1997). It's the synthesis of one of the greatest techno stories ever told, a timeless masterpiece and a classic of the future.

From here on the reins pass solely into Stinson's hands, his genius slowly submerged in that invisible liquid called "life".

Stinson snubs the 12" format and releases Neptune's Lair (Tresor, 1999), and it's a masterpiece once again. You can sense James's intention to craft a sonic amalgam in contrast to the earlier The Quest, where the tracks could rely on their "classic" status to flow together on listening. It opens with an intro: "Temple of Dos De Aqua" is pure vision. "Species Of The Pod" glides by at 130 bpm, and it's magic again. "Andreaen Sand Dunes" could have been written by Battisti, while "Running Out Of Space" is two heavenly minutes to completely lose yourself in. The rest of the record tears down every sonic barrier, between experimentation and pure eighty-electro, building a sumptuous suite.

Between the release of Neptune's Lair and the third album, Stinson vents his creativity through two other previously unheard projects. In 2001, Warp releases Lifestyles Of The Laptop Cafè (Warp, 2001) under the name The Other People Place, a collection of exquisite jazzy electro, highway ballads and echoes of early techno as laid down by Atkins. A record that's moving in every single second, with tracks like "It's Your Love" and "You Said You Want Me" that split your heart in two, and one of the absolute peaks of Stinson's whole journey: "Let Me Be Me", a post-electro ballad with keyboards played 400 metres underwater.

The other project goes under the name Transllusion and takes shape on the album The Opening Of The Cerebral Gate (Supermat, 2001). The sound is square and scientific, dark and cerebral. The tracks seem to spin on themselves, marking time with Morse signals and alarms straight out of a nuclear submarine.

2002 is the year of Drexciya's return: Harnessed The Storm (Tresor, 2002) is the name of the duo's third album. Born out of the atmospheres of Transllusion, the album takes on the tones of a sonic storm, almost as if it were the finish line to be reached before the end. Very dark, with no trace left of the old cartoonish period, it flows fast and shadowy, through a tunnel where the light is hard to reach.

Stinson is suffering from heart disease, and his life begins to take on a distorted shape, which in music translates into severity and battles against time. The same year sees the release of Grava 4 (Clone, 2002), where black is the dominant colour. Unsettling and hallucinated, the sound dissolves between storms of noise and glimpses of a Stinson already half a ghost, no longer quite human. He lets basslines and repeated doses of amniotic fluid flow through, everything condensed, yet never so serene. After Harnessed The Storm, this sounds like a Stinson aware of his path, of his future. An acceptance of a journey that would turn out to be so brilliant it could no longer be of this earth.

On 3 September 2002, James Stinson dies from heart complications. The announcement comes the following day from Mad Mike's headquarters, Underground Resistance. Tresor does the same, and the whole techno community goes into mourning. That same year Rephlex releases L.I.F.E., under the Transllusion name, a sonic epitaph of blinding beauty. The sound is steeped in the awareness of having reached a finish line: certain of its own importance, Stinson signs off on his own ending to step into the light, and finally dissolve into a formless liquid. Some details of his life are then revealed: father of seven children, a truck driver. The secrecy surrounding Drexciya had even extended to Stinson's own mother, who was amazed at how much of the world took an interest in her son's death. She tells us that "he used to shut himself away in the basement to make music", that "he didn't ask questions and didn't want any asked of him", and that he was "a very introverted boy".

After his death, the labels Clone, Tresor and Kombination Research release three records that further ennoble Stinson's musical output from the final days of his life. Under the name Lab Rat Xl, Clone releases Mice Or Cyborg, described in the liner notes as Drexciya's seventh and final storm. The sound is more electro than Grava 4, its suggestions worthy of blazing flashes of light in the darkest forest. On Tresor, under the moniker Shifted Phases, comes Cosmic Memoirs Of Late Great Rupert J. Rosinthrope, more experimental and cold, metal that sounds like a "motochip", while under the name Abstract Thought, the album Hypothetical Situations sees the light, where the aquatic experience lives out a cosmological relationship, the artist's soul adrift among the stars in the universe.

James Stinson is the first martyr of a techno conscience. The translation of such suffering into music is unprecedented in the electronic field. His story is as fascinating as the world he created for his music, his vision. A genius still too little admired and respected, and not only by rock critics. A journey to be faced by shipwrecking among projects and revelations, by transformation, by the mutation of man, as a note on the cover of Grava 4 puts it: "Don't be afraid of evolution".

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google