| ||||
| By: Ms Wanda S. Dixon PuzzleBox Records The music scene in Detroit has a long history of producing many forms of music. Detroit has been influential in the celebrated " Motown Era, " to the globally influential age of " Detroit Techno. " Detroit will always in some way drive the world in music. Detroit DJ's and Producers, in their unique ability, strive to progress into the future by putting a little of themselves into each track. This ability allows some to feel a special vibe that produces visions of the future by embracing the past. Keith Tucker, an Artist and DJ, has captured this vision in his recordings. Tucker, founder and formerly of AUX-88, known as K-1, Alien FM and KT-19941, has moved into a new direction with his futuristic movie score sounds of Optic Nerve. During the early part of the 1980's, Tucker focused his talents on playing his exclusive music via mobile DJ'ing. These transmissions of his exclusive music were most effective through street parties and various underground venues. Spinning the likes of Kraftwerk, Cybotron, Parliament, Human League, Derrick May and the Soul Sonic Force, to name a few. On the radio, in and around Detroit, this music was playing, and Tucker discovered that keyboards and various drum machines had taken over his life. Various other aspiring artists, Ron Cook, Tommy Hamilton, and Anthony Shakir, helped redefine Techno with wicked drumbeats and synthesized bass tracks strictly for parties. In 1985, Tucker, Tommy Hamilton and Tony Horton formed RX-7, a local Detroit Techno band. They performed great hits by such groups as Cybotron, Kraftwerk and the Soul Sonic Force. There were many unreleased original tracks performed by RX-7. The band played at local events in and around the city of Detroit. Wanting to pursue personal projects, the band decided to disband a year later. Starting out in Classical Music during his grammar school years, Tucker went on to learn music sequencing. He also pursued a College career in Technical Illustration, Computer Graphics and Mechanical Engineering. This in turn with a love of Classical Music has helped him to appreciate music as an art form. He learned that he had gotten more into the SCI-FI aspect of music because of the moody strings moving faintly in the background. Tucker's style of Techno conveys this in the various bass lines intermingled together to not only convey the title of his music, but feelings of being elsewhere. This art form of music led Tucker to buy older models of analog gear and pursue sending out demo tapes to various local Detroit Techno labels. He received a response from Metroplex Records; Juan Atkins label, and signed as Frequency. Under this alias, Tucker recorded such tracks as, " Television, Frequency Express, and New Jack House. " On the track " New Jack House, " Darren Muhammad of Adrenalin M.O.D. did the vocals and Juan Atkins did the mixes. Tucker learned a lot from his experiences with Metroplex Records. In September of 1992, while working on new tracks for Metroplex Records, Tucker received a visit from Tommy Hamilton. They brought their experiences together to form AUX-88, and found that their music talents had matured since the early 1980's. Using their Detroit Techno background, the two quickly accumulated a mass of new tracks together, as well as individually. AUX-88 wrote a lot of new tracks with a brand new vibe. The futuristic blend of Electro, Bass, and Trance, that they call Techno Bass. In 1992 the first single, "Technology, " transmitted by Direct Beat / 430 West records, immediately over took the Detroit club scene. " When we heard the tune, we knew the guys had made it in Detroit, for Detroit, so that's where we released it, DETROIT, " exclaimed Lawrence Burden of 430 West Records. Burden explained that 430 West had no intention of selling Techno Bass anywhere else except the U.S., but Hardwax (the only underground store in Berlin, Germany got wind of it, and demanded we sell it to them. After that, the world just caught on to Detroit's form of Techno. After the first successful single, AUX-88 produced their monumental double EP " Bass Magnetic. " While creating a new identity on the Techno scene, AUX-88 brought about new feelings among other Techno artist. This was demonstrated through a truly historical event brought about through Juan Atkins of Metroplex Records. Tucker (K1), Tommy Hamilton (Tom Tom), and Mike Banks (Mad Mike), were approached by Juan Atkins to help organize and perform Atkins first ever live performance as Model 500, on October 13, 1995. That was Metroplex Records 10th anniversary celebration. This live performance was performed in downtown Detroit and was a huge success. This historical event brought Press and Guess from as far away as Austria to see Model 500 perform " Clear ", " No UFO's, " and "Technicolor, " to a standing room only crown of on lookers. Tucker received an invitation to perform December 16, 1995 at the MAYDAY gathering in Frankfurt, Germany because of his outstanding performance from Model 500 and his background in Techno. There was a highly energized crowd of over 28,000 plus Techno fans from all over the world. Tucker was the only DJ to spin an entire musical set of all Electro. This MAYDAY event was televised world wide via the Internet. K1's Electro set was greeted with many cheers of acceptance and autograph seekers. Tucker felt it was time to leave AUX-88 and explore his other areas of interest in Techno music. He decided to pursue his alter ego solo projects Alien FM, Optic Nerve -- signed to OMNISONUS Records of Paris, and KT-19941 on PUZZLEBOX Records (co-founded by Tucker and Anthony Shakir). Tucker feels that his style of Techno is uniquely his own and he was not being recognized for his various projects done totally solo. Many of his projects were being perceived as being group projects. Through Tucker's many Magazine reviews in the U.S. and Europe has given him the recognition he deserves. This has promoted Keith Tucker as an artist, a writer and a performer of K-1, Alien Fm, Optic Nerve and KT-19941. Now ten plus years later, Tucker is still making that true techno sound that came out of Detroit in the early 80's. In September of 1998, Juan Atkins and Mike Banks approached Tucker again to help perform the 2nd Model 500 Anniversary show. Tucker along with Juan Atkins, Blair Glover, and Karl Falks performed on Christmas night, 1998 to a sell out crown at Saint Andrews Hall in downtown Detroit. Shortly after that Tucker went on a mini tour of Barcelona Spain and Germany. Tucker played to a sellout (wall to wall) crown of party seekers New Years eve 1998 in Barcelona, Spain. Tucker continues to give the crowd a show that is unforgettable. Tucker is working on a new flare for the Millennium. He is also putting out a new release of an all Female techno group, which is going by the name of "Black Electric." This group of ladies comes straight from Detroit. Tucker realized that their sound is fresh and agreed to release their first EP in the coming Millennium. Tucker keeps busy with other off side projects and business ventures such as Web Development, Graphical Arts Designing and many others. Tucker has quite a lot of talents that are waiting to explode. He is best known for lending a helping hand and getting the job done… End of Transmission... | ||||
Photo by Doug Coombe
mission | employment | keep on movin | contacts | submissions | links