I went record shopping a while back, looking mostly for stuff to do, and happened upon this flyer:
THE FUTURE SOUND OF DETROIT TOUR
8MAI2002
GRENOBLE
KEVIN SAUNDERSON (KMS PRODUCTION)
KENNY LARKIN (ART OF DANCE RECORDS)
JUAN ATKINS (OM RECORDS, METROPLEX)
SCAN 7 (UR, TRESOR)
JAMES PENNINGTON (PEACEFROG, UR)
RECLOOSE (Planet E, STUDIO !K7)
K-HAND (DETROIT HISTORY)
(other non-important Grenoble scene DJ's, i.e. not The Hacker)
Holy shit, I thought,
not in GRENOBLE! People here don't know how to dance!
Let me elaborate. This event was to take place at a farm-cum-nightclub called Le Spyce-Club, also known as La Ferme de L'Abbaye or the Espace Drac-Ouest. It's a very large building, at the end of the tramway line in a suburb of Grenoble called Fontaine, at the foot of a mountain, and very close to the Centre des Études Nucléaires. The only things nearby are a Géant Casino (a hypermarket), a Feu Vert (a garage chain), a McDonald's, a butcher shop, and a discount market. Parties typically start at 23h00, which is long after all these places close, and just before the last tram makes its way back to the city, dooming you to either an overamped main room or a long walk back home if things don't work out.
Now, I had been to this place once before, in the month of March. Technasia was listed on the flyer, I figured it was worth 8€ to see them. I was the ONLY one in the club until long after midnight, and maybe 20 people total showed up, none of whom did more than sit at a table, sucking down a bottle of vodka that they paid too much for. The total lack of heat didn't help. I ended up walking home that night past the car dealerships and junkyards of Fontaine's industrial zone.
So I was certainly worried about heading out there all by myself again. Fortunately, that turned out to be unnecessary.
The 313 list came to my rescue. A chap from Australia was planning a tour of continental Europe with his girlfriend, and he was going to be in Geneva and Lausanne, which are only a short train ride away. I told him of the lineup, gave him my phone number and email address, and he said that he would get back to me.
Weeks passed. I got a reply! He was interested and he would meet me at the tram stop by his hotel, and from there we would go to Le Spyce.
We arrived on the scene just in time. Unfortunately. Scan 7 were in the middle of their sound check, and the house lights were up, showing the venue's relative uncleanliness and decrepit character. Disappointment was on its way, and hit hard when we saw the lineup scribbled on sheets of paper taped up on the walls and speakers. No Kevin Saunderson. No James Pennington. No K-Hand. Rats.
The sound in the main room was delayed even after the sound check was over for no apparent reason whatsoever. Eventually, someone went up to a tiny computer monitor in the DJ booth and started clicking on things until music started playing. The guy looked far too European to be one of the Detroit artists, and the fact that he departed quickly, leaving the DJ booth empty, left it all too obvious what he had done. Prerecorded mixing. Ugh.
After two songs, Recloose started spinning. Thank God for that. His set was the first time I have EVER heard wanky experimental "electronica" sound funky. He's from Detroit, so that shouldn't be a surprise. Two hours passed. Recloose dropped a remix of Inner City's "Good Life", and people sang along. I met a couple French guys who were really into 313, and talked with them a bit. My Australian pal told me the story of how Recloose was working in a Subway or something, recognized Carl Craig walking in the door, and stuffed his demo CD in a sandwich. Recloose got warm and took off his hoodie. I was happy for the first time that day, but it was already after midnight and therefore tomorrow. Rats.
We recognized Juan Atkins in the crowd and he looked a bit out of it. My guess is he wasn't happy about the way this "tour" worked out, and I don't think anyone on the musical side of it was, but I'll talk more about that later.
Around 2 AM (one hour later than on the poster, but we started late, so don't blame Juan like everyone else does), Mister Juan Atkins took the decks, and didn't screw up once. Now, don't get me wrong, I think Juan Atkins is one of the greatest techno and electro producers ever, but on the wheels of steel, he isn't on the same pedestal that his two contemporaries in the Holy Trinity of Techno, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, share pretty equally. His reputation of showing up late (or not at all) doesn't help his image.
During Juan's set, I sit down near the bar, and Recloose glances at me. I say, "Man, you tore it up," to which he replies, "You speak English?" I tell him I'm American, and he asks me where I'm from. Turns out that he grew up near Salem, Massachusetts before he moved to Detroit, and then to New Zealand. We chatted about baseball, and I got chided for being a Yankee fan. He got me a beer (free for him) and we sat, ogling the three lady bartenders who did their damn best to show off their figures and still remain dressed. Recloose (whose real name is Matt) kept drinking, while I rolled a cigarette. He thought it was a joint, and was disappointed that it wasn't. I suppose when you only get paid for two out of five nights, you might want a little somethin' somethin' to forget your troubles. After that, this little snippet of dialogue occurred.
Recloose: (to another individual) Yo, this guy's American.
(to me) This is Kenny.
Me: (to Kenny) My name's Matt.
Recloose: That's Kenny as in Kenny Larkin.
Me: Holy shit.
Yeah, that was the height of my night.
Soon after that, Scan 7 took over. I had seen them and their setup (in fact, I almost knocked their MPC off the table by accident) during their sound check, so I wasn't all that interested in gear-spotting in my normal style. However, it occurred to me that I would like to see how they were working stuff. I went up to the balcony and saw different people.
Scan 7 releases records for an outfit called Underground Resistance. Maybe you've heard of them. If not, read about them. UR used to be totally anonymous. The only name credited on recordings in those days was Underground Resistance, pure and simple. Live performances featured two keyboard players, a DJ, and an MC, all masked, long before Slipknot ever did it, and with lots more class. Several other UR (and non-UR) acts have followed up with this anonymity. Dopplereffekt performs in scientist uniforms with varying numbers and numerous pseudonyms. The guys from Ultradyne don scary makeup. The Martian throws a camouflage net over the DJ booth and shines red lights everywhere. Scan 7 play the same game: black jumpsuits, ski masks, and SCAN 7 baseball caps. Both members are pretty short, and their jumpsuits don't fit well, so they looked an awful lot like Jawas.
They sure didn't sound like Jawas, though. The one Scan 7 EP (Dark Territory on Tresor) I had heard was real disappointing. Seven rather boring tracks consisting of 909 loops, yeeee-haw. Their live set took some of those elements and spun up a techno-electro nightmare that couldn't stop, even when Trackmaster Lou and One of Seven cut out the beats for well over a minute; the crowd kept cheering until the beat kicked back in.
Scan 7 played for a good hour, 15 minutes longer than they were supposed to. A quartet from Lille named Useless came afterwards, but my arm had inexplicably begun to ache. It didn't look like Kenny was going to play; closing time was nigh and he still hadn't gotten his money. We did end up leaving after all. At first, it seemed like I was going to take my Australian pal's girlfriend home. There seemed to be tension between them all night, and I wonder what she had in mind. We (read: she. I was staying as far as I could from between them) went back to get him from the dancefloor, and we all rode the tram back together. A brief political discussion came to life and died quietly. I took the bus home and slept until sundown.
I suppose this is worth mentioning:
"The Future Sound of Detroit" is the old, old motto of Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva's Plus 8 records, and it's probably where The Future Sound of London got their name. They (Plus 8, that is, not FSOL) caught a lot of crap for it because: (1) they weren't from Detroit, they were (and still are) from Windsor across the Detroit River, and (2) they were mostly white guys, while all the other people making techno at the time were black.
Oddly enough, this tour contained nobody from the current Plus 8 roster. Kenny Larkin (who happens to be black) quit the label after being left out of the first Plus 8 European tour, which was NOT called "The Future Sound of Detroit". Of the guys who actually played in the above performance, at most Scan 7 is still physically in Detroit. Kenny Larkin and Juan Atkins both live in Los Angeles, and Recloose has relocated to New Zealand.