Monday, May 24, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
FESTIVAL PREVIEW
Detroit's own electronic Movement.
Techno comes home
this weekend for
annual festival
By JOSHUA BAYER
Daily Arts Writer
When average Americans close
their eyes and try to summon up a
quintessential
image of techno Movement2010
culture, chanc- Saturday through
es are they're Monday at12 p.m.
going to envi- Hart Plaza, Detroit
sion a sweaty, $60 for a three-day pass
white "Euro
Rave," action-packed with grinding
club-druggers. Little does the aver-
age American know that not only did
techno music originate in the States,
but that it was a predominantly black,
urban movement, spearheaded right
here in Detroit.
Movement, also known as the
Detroit Electronic Music Festival, is
an annual testament to Detroit's often
overlooked past as the hotbed of tech-
no and electronic music in general.
And, with a 100-artist lineup boast-
ing talent from 13 different countries
(including Germany, Chile, Spain and
Argentina), Movement also showcases
the international spiderweb of splin-
ter genres that the "Detroit Sound"
has spawned over the years.
Since its foundation in 2000, the
festival has erupted into a gargan-
tuan five-stage gala, attracting techno
fanatics from across the globe.
"It's a pilgrimage - it's a Mecca
of this stuff," said Jason Huvaere,
Movement's executive director. "It
is a full-blown 36-hour block of pro-
gramming, plus all the after-parties
spread all over town. It is, without a
question, the single highest concen-
tration of creative individuals that the
city attracts. I mean, we sell out every
hotel in town ... Detroit just lights up
for the weekend. This festival makes
people want to vacation in Detroit."
But unlike the star-studded lineups
of blockbuster indie festivals like Lol-
lapalooza and Bonnaroo, Movement's
lineup is likely to look like Greek to
anyone who isn't a hardcore tech-
head.
"One of the beauties of this festival
is that we're able to showcase music
that people here may not be super
familiar with," Huvaere explained.
"It's not designed, nor was it ever
designed, to be a popular music festi-
val ... Most of the music that we work
with is from artists that have a lot
of momentum in other parts of the
world. And that's what we're trying to
do, is just to keep Detroit up with the
current momentum and the current
pace of the world festival circuit."
While the festival certainly sports
its fair share of local talent and musi-
cians stayingtrue to the funk-and-dis-
co roots of classic Detroit techno and
house music, it also plays host to an
eclectic slew of electronic offshoots --
from breakbeat and jungle to hip hop
and dubstep.
Detroit native Juan Atkins, largely
credited as the pioneer of techno
music along with high school buddies
Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson
(all of whom will be performing at
Movement this weekend), sees the
festival as a showcase of Detroit's
transnational influence coming full
circle.
"Even jungle and drum-and-bass
See MOVEMENT, Page 10
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