Detroit Techno Militia is a record label and a street level DJ/Producer collective dedicated to preserving the legacy of true Detroit electronic music and its proliferation around the world.  We believe in what we do, and take pride in contributing to a tradition that has deeply inspired us. Detroit Techno Militia soldiers work to maintain and preserve the significance of techno made in our native city.

Techno is a family affair.

Arriving onto the electronic scene with "I Believe", featured on the monumental (10 Records) compilation "Techno 2: The Next Generation" (alongside Carl Craig, Marc Kinchen, and Jay Denham) in 1990, Octave One is the brainchild of the phenomenal native sons of Detroit, MI (USA), the Burden Brothers. The core unit of the band, made up of Lenny and Lawrence Burden (with revolving members of Lynell, Lorne, and Lance Burden), have had the privilege of bringing their high energy live shows to many parts of the world, including Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, UK, and the USA, among many other places.

The brothers have released groundbreaking dance anthems on their own Detroit based record label, 430 West Records. Including DJ Rolando's "Jaguar", Random Noise Generation's "Falling in Dub" (the other Burden brother moniker), Aux 88's "My A.U.X. Mind" (on the 430 West sister label Direct Beat), as well as their own Octave One recordings: "Empower", "Nicolette", 'The X-files", "Meridian", “Love and Hate”, “The Greater Good”, and 'Siege". They have remixed tracks for such artists as Massive Attack, Akabu (Joey Negro), DJ Rolando (Jaguar), Steve Bug, John Thomas, Aril Brikha, Vince Watson, The Trampps, Rhythm is Rhythm, and Inner City.

For Worldwide DJ Bookings pls contact -

niels@fireinthedisco.nl

https://www.facebook.com/fireinthediscoagency/

At midnight, on March 13th 1991, a basement door opened at Leipziger Strasse 126, Berlin. Through this door, many passed, on their way to defining new terrains in electronic music. There they found a dance floor in the vaults of a closed-down department store, with a unique sound bound to dense fog, building night after night a history that was also a vision of the future. 

This history has seen in Jeff Mills’ first sets on three turntables, Underground Resistance's first live appearances in Europe, grandiose Tresor Park parties, to various chapters of the Loveparade with Sven Väth in the 90s and since then countless generation-spanning parties. These moments represent the highlights of infinite personal clubbing experiences. It is the manifestation of the Berlin spirit, emerging from its considerable strife. This history is not without its complications - from temporary closure by the authorities and several raids in the early years to closure and demolition of the old location in 2005. What followed was years of wandering in exile and, finally, resurrection in the new home in Kraftwerk Berlin.

These stories, conversations and shared experiences within our walls forge a resilience that drives towards a shared ideal, the Tresor sound: community, resistance, and the world to come. This was observed in the newly re-unified German youth, who danced and celebrated together from the club’s inception, and into the present day through ongoing community work in Detroit. 

Tresor Records was founded in the same year and began to serve as a platform for exporting the new sounds associated with Tresor all around the world. Emergent musicians from Michigan, such as Juan Atkins, Underground Resistance and Drexciya, were pivotal in shaping these early years. Their visits to Berlin would kick-start dialogue between the youth movement in Europe and these musicians. This story is one of friendship and community-building, inextricably linked with cities like Detroit, Birmingham or Edinburgh, where like-minded friends built something truly special, where revelatory rhythms soundtrack decaying industry in corrupted metropoles. 

Tresor Records has been the fertile soil for dozens upon dozens of creative minds, from the very luminaries of the scene who developed electronic music over the last three decades through to contemporary protagonists who are currently defining the sound of the future -  A more than 300 strong catalogue displays an unmistakable identity - the Tresor spirit.

To those that have danced before, and to those that will dance in the future: the light at the end of the long Tresor tunnel is a signal. A flicker amidst the fog. This is our future. This is our place.

"Call It Techno" was the blueprint track which was written on June 4, 1989.  It was at the forefront of European Rave Culture and became a well known track in the U.K. & Germany.  The documentary "We Call It Techno" explains it right from the beginning and from that came the second & third Love Parade themes being named "The Future Is Ours" off the XL/Citibeat LP by Musto & Bones.  And "My House Is Your House" from the Break Boys which was Frankie Bones aka on Fourth Floor Records in 1990.

Frankie became the American Pioneer of Rave Culture on both coasts in 1990, playing Techno as a movement.  The Peace, Love, Unity Movement which in 1993 became PLUR after a fight broke out at an event in The Bronx which had Richie Hawtin as it's headliner.

And the rest is history.  If words can paint the picture here, the first 5 Soundcloud links will describe a DJ who has a journey of a lifetime & still is active in 2024.  The music that comes from the heart & soul of the Brooklyn Underground.

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