Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2010
Courtesy of Es.U.Es
If you point your browser to the homepage of Detroit techno label Motech, you’ll find a map—not of Detroit, but of the Adriatic Sea and Turkey, accompanied by the motto, “We speak your language.”
They serve as a good indicator of Franki Juncaj’s different take on Detroit techno. The head of Motech, better known by the moniker DJ 3000, grew up in Detroit as the son of Albanian immigrants, and his productions blend the essentials of techno with the music of the Adriatic.
“Motech Records was started in 2002 as an effort to allow myself, and other producers, an outlet for combining both the influences we drew from Detroit music as well as the influences of our ancestral cultures,” he tells Metropolis via Blackberry from Detroit. “Motech provided a way for me and the producers I enjoyed to release music that might not have otherwise been released as traditional Detroit techno.”
Raised in the immigrant enclave of Hamtramck, DJ 3000 celebrates his heritage by blending samples of traditional instruments like the two-stringed çiftelia with the machine funk for which his native city is better known. He was baptized into the techno brotherhood through the influential Underground Resistance label’s Somewhere in Detroit series, and debuted with the full-length Migration, which weaved ethnic Albanian sounds with rhythms ranging from hammering techno to broken beats and downtempo.
With Motech, the DJ is pushing the careers of a global coterie of producers.
“We are always trying to move forward by releasing music from new artists and allowing them the exposure they might not get elsewhere,” he says, mentioning fellow Detroit producer Shawn Snell, Chicago’s ID and Japan’s DJ Compufunk. “These guys might not be well known across the world, but they are making progressive, boundary-pushing music, and I think it my duty to let the world know about them.”
Of course, the younger generation of Detroit techno producers is faced with a tricky balancing act: how do you retain the fundamentals of the music without letting it ossify? “The blueprints for dance music were laid so long ago that a lot of what we are seeing now are just rehashes,” he says. “It’s almost as if dance music has remixed itself over and over, and it’s arrived as a watered-down version of the original.
“Being from Detroit, we are taught to respect those who have come before us, and know where we are from. We always shout out to the ‘D,’ and it comes through in our music. However, being the owner of a label and a producer myself, I’m obligated to keep moving forward and forging a place for Motech on the world stage.”
It will be strictly vinyl for DJ 3000 in Tokyo (“some DJs have setups that look like the flight deck on the space shuttle, but a guy with a pair of turntables can rock just as hard”), and he looks forward to being among friends. “I plan to just spend time with them and enjoy the event,” he says. “DJ Krush is a great artist and DJ, and I am a huge fan… I plan to watch his set, as he performs after [me], so I am definitely excited about that.”
Audio Tokyo Electronic Music Festival@Harumi Seaside Terminal, July 17. See concert listings for details.
