USB Flash Drive
By now, the story of techno’s creation in Detroit in the ‘80s should be well known. As the direct progeny of Detroit’s rich Black music culture, techno was both a radical innovation and a logical outgrowth of the city’s jazz, R&B, and disco histories. By fusing these traditions with a love of European electronic music, Detroit techno’s first-generation of DJs offered up a new set of propositions for Black dance music. Working out of home studios on secondhand gear, and recording for small, local labels, Techno DJs in Detroit liberated Black creativity from the confines of the mainstream music business. Once the sound and approach were established in Detroit, this unabashedly futuristic music would create a ripple effect that is still being felt around the world.
Working in the spirit of techno’s origins and in the interest of its future, Washington, D.C.-based producer/DJ Bernard Farley (aka B_X_R_N_X_R_D) founded Black Techno Matters in 2019. For the last five years, the initiative has operated as a label, an event series, and a banner under which musicians and appreciators alike could acknowledge the music’s Black roots. For its second label compilation, F_X_M_X_L_Y v2, Black Techno Matters compiles a 20-track album (or, if you purchase the USB version, a whopping 130-track album) from 16 BTM-affiliated producers. With its impressive range, and stylistic variety, F_X_M_X_L_Y v2 offers a look at the cutting edge of techno and Black electronic music in 2024.
D.C.-based DJ/producer, MerlinBerlin sets it off with album opener “Mode-Offline.” Its intro layers airy synth pads and a soaring vocal sample with delay-drenched percussion. Once the drums kick in, we’re off to the races, as MerlinBerlin gradually adds arpeggiated synth and an oceanic bass drone to create a driving, uplifting tune. Trovarsi ups the intensity with “Seek The Rhythm,” a pounding Jeff Mills-style banger while BTM mastermind, B_X_R_N_X_R_D checks in with the nervy, glitched-out composition, “Killing Us Softly With Convenience.” Jamal Dixon’s “Stimulus Check” is a brutally polyrhythmic beast of a cut that would’ve sat perfectly alongside some of the classic East Coast techno and hard house tracks that were wrecking dancefloors in the ‘90s. The comp’s boundless creativity continues with Kotic Couture’s “Pop My Butt,” where dubby echo effects and ballroom beats collide with a hilarious and iconic Hazel-E/Iyanla Vanzant vocal sample. Roughly four decades after techno’s invention, it’s refreshing to hear the ways Black artists are still pushing and experimenting with the form while staying faithful to its roots.
