Margin Walker got his start playing drum & bass at Detroit warehouse parties in the late 90s before stepping away in 2001. He returned to DJing in 2011, returning to his first love of hard, dark techno.

In early 2012 he and longtime friend Garrett Dillon began the formation of their own label, Dystopian Rhythm. The label has released EPs from Andrei Morant, Garrett Dillon, Mark Morris, Virulent, Flex, Justin Schumacher and many more on the way.

Together they perform as Dystopian Rhythm, showcasing label tracks and original material. They also produce high-quality techno-centric events in Detroit and run a weekly podcast aired on Fnoob Techno Radio.

Margin Walker is currently hard at work refining his skills on the production side, with a debut release slated for summer 2014.

In early 2012 he and longtime friend Garrett Dillon began the formation of their own label, Dystopian Rhythm. The label has released EPs from Andrei Morant, Garrett Dillon, Mark Morris, Virulent, Flex, Justin Schumacher and many more on the way.

Together they perform as Dystopian Rhythm, showcasing label tracks and original material. They also produce high-quality techno-centric events in Detroit and run a weekly podcast aired on Fnoob Techno Radio.

Margin Walker is currently hard at work refining his skills on the production side, with a debut release slated for summer 2014.

Tracklist:
01 Uun - Dendrite [Rheostatus]
02 Flex - Data 2.0 [Dystopian Rhythm]
03 Ronan Teague & Trysh Alexander - Global (Frank Salvio Dub Remix) [Vizion Division]
04 Raiz - Cored 1 [VRV]
05 Exium - Star Ancestors [Modularz]
06 Garrett Dillon - Light Shadows (Measure Divide Remix 2) [Dystopian Rhythm]
07 Developer - The Provoker [Modularz]
08 Coldgeist - Artefacts (Developer Remix 1) [Weekend Circuit]
09 Mas Teeveh - Confessions of an Opium Eater [Micro.Fon]
10 Luis Flores - The Word (DJ Hyperactive Remix) [Blank Code]
11 Aaron Litschke - 6U [SecreTechno]
12 Andre Ramos - Generator A [Dystopian Rhythm]
13 Israel Toledo - Let it Flow (Justin Kase Remix) [Ill Bomb]
14 Mono.xID - Black Brew [ConcernsMusic]
15 Quantic Spectroscopy - Depth of Perception [Eklero]
16 Uun - Scroll Locked (Owen Sands Remix) [More or Less]

5 Questions:
According to your bio, you started off dj-ing drum and bass, what caused the switch to techno?

 You know, I don't really have a good reason other than my tastes shifted a bit more into techno and I just kind of went with it. It was the first proper electronic music I heard and I always loved it, so it was probably pretty natural to go that way. That was probably late 2000, and I haven't played d&b since, though I still enjoy it. I really favored the super-heavy, intense stuff so I probably just burned myself out on it or something. Detroit has always had a small but very talented d&b scene, for as long as I've been around to see it.

You co-own the excellent Detroit based label Dystopian Rhythm, with Garrett Dillon. What was the reason for starting it up?

We had talked about starting a label for long time, but never really had the means "back in the day". We both dropped out of it entirely from around 2001 to 2009 or so. Minimal just didn't do it for us, and it felt like a lot of our heroes were just boring us now. When we both started to get fully back into it, we were both in a considerably more secure and stable part of life, and of course the commonality of the internet made it much easier to get in touch with artists we liked and organize everything.


The label has a varied but distinct sound to it. How do you go about curating it?

We actually have pretty different tastes for the most part. Garrett's into a lot of the dark, heavy, peak-time stuff and I really prefer the deep and dubbier end of things. I think so far the label has been pretty accurate at representing a lot of our overlap in taste. We both love weird, synthy, kind-of stuff, and broken-beat. A lot of the music we've released so far either fell in our lap (like the Flex release) or were the result of us meeting someone whose music we enjoyed and getting to know them. It was pretty crazy to put out an Andrei Morant EP, I saw that guy so many times in the late 90's and early 2000's!


Being a resident, how do you feel about the current state of "techno" affairs in the surrounding Detroit area?

It's actually really strong still, with a lot of new talent and plenty of artists coming through. We're pretty spoiled with Movement, and Blank Code does a killer show every month. We've had some success with our events and crowds are getting better and better. There are also some really cool new artists doing stuff you wouldn't necessarily equate with Detroit, like the Slyfoxx and How to Kill guys. It's sometimes hard to get a good crowd for proper techno the same as it is anywhere in the US, but we really can't complain. We're glad to be a part of this current upswing.


Any future projects, shows, label news you're excited about and would like to share?

We've got some really good EPs in the works right now from Angel Costa, Andre Ramos, Dolgener and myself, and an LP from Uun who has really been getting better with every release he does. We haven't done an event in a while but we will be getting that ball rolling again very soon. Thanks for having me!

Comments

Oleg Pw

....Yurio....

Uun

Uun

rheostatus