E D’s Rant
PRECIOUS MOMENTS Editor Ken Taylor (ken.taylor@xlr8r.com) Creative director Tim Saputo (tim.saputo@xlr8r.com) Managing editor Shawn Reynaldo (shawn.reynaldo@xlr8r.com) Videogames editor Ryan Rayhill (ryan.rayhill@xlr8r.com)
PRODUCER, XLR8R TV Kerry McLaughlin (kerry.mclaughlin@xlr8r.com) Editorial interns Patric Fallon, James Jano, Thomas Rees Staff Writers H e at i n g u p t h e m i d w e s t w i n t e r w i t h A n t h o n y " s h a k e " s h a k i r i n D e t r o i t .
While it seems that UK dance music is always being pushed forward (at least that's what its practitioners would have you believe), it would be nothing without its many influences, its constant looks back at music past. In a way, it's unimaginable that UK funky-future-garage-two-stepwhatever-it's-called would be the beast it's become without the impact of house and techno scenes in New York, Chicago, or Detroit. Fortunately, guys like Hot City and Bok Bok would be the first to admit it. So as that new canon of dance music is authored and officiated by young DJs and producers around the world, we've chosen to dedicate a large part of this issue to a few artists we consider to be part of the New Classics, most of them currently undergoing a "moment" of late-career recognition. This month, we start off at London's Fabric club, where FACT Magazine editor Tom Lea surveys the steady impact that New Jersey mainstay Todd Edwards has had on garage and house music. Edwards is the kind of guy that everyone wants a remix from these days, so perhaps nearly 20 years of toil have paid off for the producer/DJ. But don't just take our word for it... read up on what Kingdom and Hot City have to say about Todd’s influence, too. Of course, Edwards isn’t the only Yank whose work is seeing a resurgence in Europe. The Motor City’s renaissance in the house and techno departments is also in full swing. But just as first-wave Detroit techno producer Anthony "Shake" Shakir finally gets his long-overdue credit with a three-disc retrospective on The Netherlands’ Rush Hour label, newcomers like Kyle Hall are showing up on Hyperdub and Warp, continuing to spread the groovy gospel of the not-yet-forgotten city to the far corners of the earth. It's a city whose name itself is still one of the most praise-filled adjectives one can bestow on a piece of electronic music (think Redshape or Motor City Drum Ensemble), so writer Walter Wasacz went in search of that warm sound that everybody’s trying to capture. Detroit still seems to have it in droves: Andrés, Kenny Dixon Jr., Omar S, Mike Huckaby, Scott Grooves, Jason Fine—and those are just the guys that haven’t left for Berlin. On the flipside, Barcelona-based cover stars Delorean, we can tell you, are future classics in the making—not to mention DJ-purveyors of some of those old techno and house sounds themselves. As XLR8R's Michael Harkin finds out, the band got into everything from grime and ghettotech to piano- and bassline house via their club night, Desparrame, before recording their gorgeous new LP, Subiza—which, truth be told, resembles something far more MBV and Madchester than DJ Assault and Wiley. It's quite the departure from the punk and emo sounds the band was making when they came together 10 years ago... so we've taken it upon ourselves to ensure that another 10 won't go by before their get their due credit. —Ken Taylor, Editor
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Eric K. Arnold, Joe Colly, Matt Earp, Rob Geary, Derek Grey, David Hemingway, Max Herman, Ethan Holben, Justin Hopper, Josiah Hughes, Brandon Ivers, Luciana Lopez, Cameron Macdonald, Lulu McAllister, Tomas Palermo, Dave Segal, Jesse Serwer, Evan Shamoon, Patrick Sisson, Janet Tzou, Tony Ware, Walter Wasacz, Rico "Superbizzee" Washington Contributing Writers Michael Byrne, Brandon Bussolini, Michael Harkin, Ross Holland, August Howard, Connie Hwong, Tom Lea, John S.W. Macdonald, Zoneil Maharaj, Tyler McCauley, Fred Miketa, Doug Morton, Eric Smillie, Roger Thomasson Staff Photographers Martei Korley, Morgan Howland, Paul O’Valle, Dustin Ross, Ragnar Schmuck, Mathew Scott, Christopher Woodcock Contributing Photographers Nacho Alegre, Shawn Brackbill, Julia Galdo, Tony Katai STAFF ILLUSTRATORS Chuck Anderson for No Pattern, Derek Morris for Trophy, Colin Strandberg for The Work Steady contributing ILLUSTRATORS and stylists Kristen Lucio and JAK On the cover Delorean, shot in Barcelona by Nacho Alegre speci a l THANK s Alex Sushon, Shawn Brackbill, Callan Clendedin, Dean Bein, Gamall Awad