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The definitive aural document of the long-lost but never forgotten Music Institute of Detroit. While early Detroit Techno will always hold a certain position of universal reverence in the dance music community, it’s social origins in the city of it’s birth seem, to say the least, misunderstood & over-simplified. “Music Institute Vol. 1” provides only a relatively small glimpse into the experience of the then burgeoning Techno scene of Motor City; experience is always superior to abstract remembrance, especially when the majority of those doing the remembering could not be present for this special era in dance music history. And that’s exactly why “Music Institute Vol. 1” is such an invaluable piece for those truly interested in the sound & overarching aesthetic of early Detroit Techno, as it comprises an actual musical document of the time, allowing listeners an authentic & relatively subjective glimpse into the complex origins of the Detroit sound, and more importantly, of it’s communal beginnings—far from it’s hysteric reverence across seas, which, while most sincere, frequently overshadows an interest in Techno’s reception at the point of it’s creation. With “Music Institute Vol. 1,” graciously released by Kai Alce’s NDATL label, we see the inklings of a homegrown devotion to the then new and previously uncharted sound—specifically in it’s vibrancy at the indisputable home for underground dance music of the late 1980’s in Detroit. Listening to these exceptional tracks, none of which have been previously released, we begin to understand in tangible form the sophisticated, raw expressionism of early stalwarts Derrick May, Chez Damier, Alton Miller & other early Detroit legends, and more importantly, how this sound was employed for the service of their own communities & fraternal gatherings, adding a real life to our understandings of that time.
Paul Nickerson 2009