When I was 14 years old, I used to work alternate Saturdays with my best mate Spencer in the Glasgow record store Rubadub. I was a massive fan of Daft Punk at the time, and on one of my first days there, a promo of the hugely anticipated Digital Love single came into the shop. When I asked if I could have it, Barrie, my mentor at the time, picked up the record and snapped it over his knee (so casually as to make it obvious he had done it many times before) and proceeded to launch it into the bin before handing me a record by a Detroit outfit known as Optic Nerve, ordering me to “Get yourself upstairs and listen to this”.
That’s how seriously they took their music in Rubadub and how little time they had for bullshit. One name I kept on noticing in the techno end of the shop was Drexciya. This was at a time when I would spend up to six hours a night on Napster and I eventually ran a search for them and the first file that came up was an MP3 that turned out to be The Journey Home from their 1995 EP on Warp. It blew my mind. Creatively it was like nothing I had ever heard because at that point I was into mainstream house and trance. It was the equivalent of an Abba fan hearing Larry Levan for the first time. I’d never really heard much dance music made on analogue machines before, at least not music that had so much feeling.
There was a real mystique to Drexciya because they were completely anonymous – they were never photographed, rarely gave interviews and if there was any extra text on their artwork it usually just said “Thanks to GOD”. Instead of revealing anything personal about themselves, they came up with an Afrofuturist mythology which cast the Drexciyans as a race of sea-dwelling humans descended from Africans thrown off slave ships in the mid-Atlantic. As a result, most of their tracks carried evocative, aquatic/sci-fi-inspired titles like Hydro Theory, Darthouven Fish Men, Deep Sea Dweller, Funk Release Valve and Water Walker.
The heavy subject matter and scientific leanings didn’t mean their music had to be was cold or impersonal; in fact it’s quite the opposite. Unlike most of today’s techno, which aims for a singular mood – white noise, crescendos and big drops – Drexciya made their own rules. Their tunes will often change every few bars, showcasing a particular mastery of melancholic melody and an ability to sway from playful to heartbreaking in the space of a minute. Elements don’t drop in and out neatly every four, eight or 16 bars as seems to be the status quo template with dance music, they’re it’s much more idiosyncratic and inventive. I often draw parallels in my head between Drexciya and Prince; both could achieve astounding emotional range in their songs and both operated completely in their own bubble. Drexciya’s James Stinson was a long-distance truck driver and he said in what I think is his only interview that in his truck he only listened to jazz, because he didn’t want any contemporary music to influence or interfere with his own vision.
Like many of their Detroit peers, both members of Drexciya maintained equally prolific side-projects including Dopplereffekt, Japanese Telecom and of course my favourite, Arpanet. One of my favourite Drexciya-related albums is 2001’s Lifestyles Of The Laptop Cafe, made by Stinson in the guise of The Other People Place. It was thrust into my hands when I was in Rubadub with the words “this is one of the best records you’ll ever hear” shortly after I had been sacked by the guys for turning up late too many times. I put the needle down on Let Me Be Me and I was sold. I don’t think I even listened to the rest of the album before buying it.
At first I didn’t make the connection with Drexciya because conceptually it’s so different – it’s really personal and heartfeltwhereas the Drexciya and Dopplereffekt music I had been collecting was colder and stark. The album tells the story of a relationship gone sour prematurely, ending in heartache. Something we can all relate to. The music of The Other People Place is fairly simplistic in its make-up – one or two drum machines (the classic Roland TR-808 prominently features), pads, bass and trippy, otherworldly vocals or effects – but what they do it does with those few elements is far greater than the sum of its parts and at times simply devastating in a club environment.
In the early 2000s, there were rumours of a Drexciya live tour, including a date in Glasgow. But then sadly James Stinson died of heart complications shortly before this tour began and that was the end of the Drexciya project. That was the first time that the death of a musician had a profound affect on me. My friends even did a Stinson tribute party in Glasgow that night in an illegal warehouse space. When I hear The Other People Place album I feel sad for many reasons. Not only because its message resonates with me but because I know how much more he had to give. There will never be another Drexciya.
Jackmaster’s five favorite Drexciya-related tracks
Drexciya – Funk Release Valve
This is from their 1999 album Neptune’s Lair, which is probably their most well-rounded album and also the one that goes deepest into the Drexciyan mythology. This track starts really upbeat and playful, but then it ushers in these more introspective themes. It’s a real trip moving from pop sensibilities into hard techno tracks that wouldn’t sound out of place at Berghain or of course Tresor, the club whose in-house label released the album.
The Other People Place – Let Me Be Me
Lifestyles Of The Laptop Cafe was such an important album for me. It didn’t sound like anything else I’d heard in dance music before – it’s so rich and warm and seductive, sexy, almost sleazy.
Arpanet – Infinite Density
This is one of Gerald Donald’s guises. There’s a lofty concept behind it about the promise and also the dangers of a fully connected world. This track is so cold and scientific, as if made in a laboratory rather than a studio, but the melody is just so incredible.
Dopplereffekt – Superior Race/Master Organism
The first time I heard this, it was being sampled by ghetto house producer DJ Deeon, on a track called Shake Dat Ass. But when you hear the original the context and energy is very different.
Elecktroids - Algorithm
Elecktroids is is a mid-90s side project, again on Warp, apparently featuring both Drexciya members. It’s a tribute to Kraftwerk, so the songs are full of these haunting, austere, melodies. It’s such a cliche to say it, but this tune will take you on a real journey. It really gets inside you and dictates your mood.
- The reissue of Lifestyles Of The Laptop Cafe by The Other People Place is out now on Warp; Drexciya’s Grava 4 will be reissued by Clone in March
Interview by Sam Richards
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