BOOK
"Techno music is just like Detroit - a complete mistake," DJ Derrick May once said of the genre that later made him famous. In Techno Rebels, Dan Sicko - critic and Detroit native - proves that the "mistake" once equated with jerky dance moves and goofy haircuts is America's uncelebrated soul music.
Born in the Motor City, techno owes as much to Detroit's teen social clubs as to electronic gadgetry. Sicko traces the music's roots back to these clubs and to such equipment as direct-drive turntables and early digital synthesizers. He illustrates how the genre spread, borne by Italian disco and Sheffield bands like Human League and Heaven 17.
But the book is really about Detroit's crippling legacy of stagnancy and how techno music offered both a form of expression and a ticket out. "Detroit became a national symbol for all that was wrong with America's cities," Sicko writes, "suffering more the negligence of the media than from any specific criminal acts." Against the backdrop of closing auto plants and downsized companies, Sicko introduces the musical rebels - DJs May, Juan Atkins, and Kevin Saunderson and radio jocks the Wizard and the Electrifying Mojo.
Besides being a lively read, Techno Rebels has a discography, with notes about record availability. A good book about a great mistake.
Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk by Dan Sicko: $16.95. Billboard Books: www.billboard.com/books.
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