MPPTH2 – Music History of Audio Production/Composer Essay – Wes Miles
Derrick May and the “Strings of Life” - Biography & Musical Analysis
“The music is just like Detroit, a complete mistake. It’s like George Clinton and Kraftwerk are stuck in an
elevator with only a sequencer to keep them company”
-
Derrick May, liner notes of “Techno! The New Dance Sounds of Detroit”, 1988 (Thomas 2011)
Derrick May was born on April 6, 1963 in Detroit, Michigan of the United States of America. Whilst one can’t say
that without him “Techno” music would not have existed, but it is unlikely that it would have had nearly the
same, significant impact upon Detroit, Europe and, indeed, the entire world.
May was raised by his single mother. In 1976, they moved to Belleville.
“Belleville was a little suburban town that I moved to when my mother attempted to save my life. I was of the
age of 13, I was a young kid, fatherless, and I was just about to get into a lot of trouble. She did what most
mothers would do, she moved me out of my neighborhood. To save me from fucking up. That’s it. That’s the
story.”
- Derrick May, 2006 (Red Bull Music Academy 2017)
Belleville is also where May attended high school, which is where he would meet his friends Juan Atkins and
Kevin Saunderson, who would go on to form the triumvirate that would be forever known as “The Belville
Three” and the pioneers of “Techno” music (United for Techno 2013).
When May was 17 years old, his mother moved to Chicago with his step-father. May remained in Detroit to
finish school, pursue an Athletics scholarship and moved in with Atkins and his grandmother. He and Atkins
would stay up late every weeknight, contemplating what was beyond Detroit and listening to “Electrifyin’ Mojo”
(DJ Charles Caldwell) who had one of the very few shows, “Midnight Funk Association” on 107.5FM WGPR - one
of only two FM radio stations in Detroit in 1977.
“We used to sit back and philosophize about what these people thought about when they made their music”
-
Derrick May in the book “Generation Ecstasy” (Reynolds 1999)
Atkins described the innovation of “FM radio” as one of the positive impacts of the violent, tragic and
destructive “Twelfth Street” Race Riots in Detroit in 1967, which had been developed to “make things accessible
to urban or black youth” (Caux et al. 2017). The radio spot (from 10pm until 3am every weeknight) had no
recognisable format allowing “Mojo” to spin records and mix-up Parliament-Funkadelic and Prince with the
electronic music of European futurists like Kraftwerk and Telex (Caux et al. 2017). The radio show had a cult-like
following in South-Eastern Michigan and was also where both May and Atkins would eventually have their first
records played on air.
A Derrick May biography is incomplete without reference to Juan Atkins, who had commenced tertiary
education in music and the experimental “Future Studies” - how the future would impact society - in Detroit in
1980. It was here that Atkins met Rick Davis, a Vietnam veteran with an affinity for electronic music equipment,
numerology and mysticism (Thomas 2011). Armed with his own Korg MS10 synthesizer Atkins and Davis formed
the group “Cybotron”, made the first “techno” music and records and created the “Metroplex” Record label. All
of these novel terms in quotation marks were Atkins’ homage to Alvin Toffler’s ideas in his text “Future Shock”,
which described the idea of a “Techno Village” and the concept of a combined super city of the Detroit Chicago
Metro Complex or “Metroplex”. These young futurist musicians of Detroit saw themselves as “techno rebels
providing the soundtrack to an alternative future – where people reclaimed technology for the benefit of the
community” (Thomas 2011).
May was a self-described “protégé” of Juan Atkins and released a co-production with him called “Let’s Go” on
the Metroplex label in 1983 under the pseudonym “X-ray”. May continued working in an arcade in the early 80s,
but honed his skills on a Roland TR-909, Korg MS10 synthesiser and Kord SQD-1 MIDI sequencer (Caux et al.
2017). He also formed the DJ and party collective “Deep Space Soundworks” with Atkins, Eddie “Flashin”
Fowlkes and Kevin Saunderson in 1983.
“If Atkins was the prophet, the one to tap into the unseen and unheard possibilities of electronic music, Derrick
May was the high priest who brought them about with forceful incarnations”
-
Dan Sicko in his book, “Techno Rebels” (Sicko 2010)
Derrick May started his own label “Transmat” - a term taken from the title of one of Atkins’ other projects as
Model 500 – in 1986 (Caux et al. 2017). The following year he released his first independent single, “Nude
Photo” under the moniker “Rhythim is Rhythim” - “a track that really started to define a new sound for Detroit”
(Thomas, 2011). It was a significant pivot and progression from the previously popular R&B tracks from the
Motown record label of the 1960s and 70s – Motown being a portmanteau of Motor and Town, representing the
previously flourishing Automotive industry on which Detroit was so dependent.
The collapse of the Automotive Industry, in the mid to late 70s, due to automation of manufacturing coincided
with the development of the Interstate 75, which ripped apart the cultural hub of the “Black Bottom”
neighbourhood which was considered Detroit’s own Harlem (Thomas, 2011). The city centre of Detroit became a
post-urban ghost town with empty and dilapidated buildings. It was stark and haunting, much like the music
being created by May and his friends.
“Then when industry came to a close, of course the city kind of went down. I think a lot of good music
and a lot of great art and creativity comes from depressed and stressful situations and I think the city of Detroit is
very instrumental in my development. I don't think I could've developed the same way in any other city.”
-
Juan Atkins in “Never Stop: Music That Resists” (Caux et al. 2017)
Carl Craig, one of the pioneers of the second wave of “Techno” describes these events as when “the whole city
(Detroit) became the ‘hood” (Caux et. Al 2017). Shortly thereafter, in the early 80s, rapid technological
advancements saw the price of outdated synthesisers and drum machines plummet, becoming accessible to
young, black and disaffected youth. “The Detroit Underground has been experimenting with technology,
stretching it rather than simply using it. As the price of sequencers and synthesisers dropped, so the
experimentation has become more intense... we call it techno!” - Juan Atkins (Cosgrove 1988)
May was one of those youths. He would make the trip from Detroit to Chicago to visit his mother intermittently,
combining this familial reunion with the sales and delivery of “maybe three to four thousand records” from the
Metroplex and Transmat Record labels to record stores and distributors in the city (Caux et al. 2017). He would
line his and Atkins’ pockets with “thousands of dollars”, but he would also feed his soul and fuel his passion by
visiting the Music Box and Power Plant nightclubs, where Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles were literally bringing
down the “House” respectively (Thomas 2011). Hardy, in particular, had a profound effect on May:
“The first time I went to Music Box, I lost my mind, I truly did. I was dancing like crazy, I was emotional, and
almost in tears. I had never felt that power and emotion from the human soul all at once. All these people were
feeling the same thing. It was as if they had been touched by the Holy Ghost.”
-
Derrick May in “Techno Rebels” (Sicko 2010)
These musicians formed a bond over this new style of music called “House” music, which combined the alien,
electronic and big, fat, punchy bass lines of Detroit techno with lush disco vocals – another sonic progression.
Derrick May gave Frankie Knuckles his 909 drum machine, which would feature on some of the very first House
productions, but took something away as well – a sense of this new sound.
It resulted in “Strings of Life”, released by “Rhythim is Rhythim” on Transmat Records in 1987. It was a coproduction between May himself (appearing as “Mayday” and Michael James). May had prior access to the
recordings of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, which feature heavily as samples in “Strings of Life” (Red Bull
Music Academy 2017).
“I went down to the local orchestra hall in my city and I had access to recording various progressions from the
orchestra, because my mother has connections within the local music community and I was able to go down
there when I was a kid and get all these sounds. I recorded them to cassette and I had had them for years. I put
them into an old Mirage Ensoniq sequencer and I still play them. I actually play progressions on the keyboard to
produce the notes that you hear on the song.”
-
Derrick May, 2006 (Red Bull Music Academy 2017)
“Strings of Life” became an “anthem in the fields and warehouses of England during the late 1980’s acid-house
boom” or so-called “Summer of Love” (Thomas 2011).
The track itself is 128bpm and in the key of D major. It combines a repetitive loop of natural sounding piano line
of chords and notes with sharp, staccato and high pitched, sometimes detuned violin notes as a sweet melody
with a punchy and gritty kick, electronic shaker and militant snare providing the rhythm. If Detroit’s early techno
sounded contemplative as if they were thinking about what they were doing with this technology, “Strings Of
Life” signified that they had found what they were looking for. It was still a completely instrumental track, but
replaced the vocals of Chicago’s House Music with the “strings” samples played with the sequencer and piano
accompaniment to provide the yin to the yang of the more electronic sound.
“Strings of Life” continued the natural progression of Afro-futurism and was seminal in Detroit techno’s claim for
a bold new future, representing the concept of hope in the desolate, post-urban landscape they were
confronted with. That hope burgeoned along with the “Techno” movement, which spread like wildfire across
the continents in the late 80s, 90s and the early 2000s.
“The Belville Three” created “techno” music. Atkins is “The Initiator”. May is “The Innovator”. Kevin Saunderson
is “The Elevator”. They have spawned the second and third waves of techno as well as creating and inspiring an
entire genre, multiple sub-genres, multiple record labels, thousands of records and producers, DJs, legions of
fans and millions of people. It is comprehensively a “Movement”, which is the same name of the free Detroit
Electronic Music Festival that May created with his label Transmat in 2003 (Thomas 2011).
In a website interview conducted for “TechnoTourist” in 2003, Derrick May summarised the impact of techno on
popular culture:
“Techno is the last true evolution of dance music of the twentieth century. A lot of people don’t realize that and
they probably never will” (Brennan 2018).
Reference list
Brennan, C 2018, Derrick May | Encyclopedia.com, www.encyclopedia.com.
Caux, J, Atkins, J, Craig, C & Mills, J 2017, Never Stop: A Music That Resists, IMDb, viewed 30 April 2022,
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11027528/>.
Cosgrove, S 1988, The Face: Motorcity Techno / Detroit Piece (May 1988), https://theface.com/, Ascential,
viewed 30 April 2022, <https://testpressing.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/the-face-detroit-dance/>.
Red Bull Music Academy 2017, Derrick May on The Belleville Three, Strings Of Life and House Music | Red Bull
Music Academy, www.youtube.com, viewed 30 April 2022,
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=w1L4Ks6yoeI&lc=UgwDpl8K-XCf3QgL5AR4AaABAg>.
Reynolds, S 1999, Generation Ecstasy, www.booktopia.com.au, Routledge, viewed 30 April 2022,
<https://www.booktopia.com.au/generation-ecstasy-simon-reynolds/book/9780415923736.html>.
Sicko, D 2010, Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk (Revised, Updated) - Sicko, Dan, Brewster, Bill |
8601417214428 | Amazon.com.au | Books, Amazon.com.au, Wayne State University Press.
Thomas, A 2011, Future Shock: The Emergence of Detroit Techno, Told by Wax Poetics, CDM Create Digital
Music, Wax Poetics, viewed 30 April 2022, <https://cdm.link/2011/06/future-shock-the-emergence-of-detroittechno-told-by-wax-poetics/>.
UNITED FOR TECHNO 2013, Detroit Techno - The Creation of Techno Music, YouTube, viewed 14 December
2020, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6O__kB8Nc8>.
Wikipedia 2022, Derrick May (musician), Wikipedia, viewed 30 April 2022,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrick_May_(musician)>.