Juan Atkins pioneering 80s electro vessel keeping properly on brand with two classic sounding but fresh new cuts – the first in 30 years!
Written and produced by Detroit deity Juan Atkins (Model 500, Infiniti, etc.) and Laurens von Oswald — nephew of Juan’s sparring partner Moritz, and co-producer of Berlin Atonal — the two-track session was sealed in the mix by TJ Hertz (Objekt) for optimal clarity and club pressure. It is said to halt the new era of “Meta” with some extensive supply notes on electro-techno’s relation to sci-fi and the same story and rhetoric that has been covered and recovered for decades now, and while the music also retreads old ground, we’re here for it.
The mind-wipe pads, dancing bleeps and machine funk trills of ‘Maintain’ is pure deep mind and body music for the discerning Detroit-Berlin fiend, supplying a sleek retro-futurist chassis for Juan’s vocodered lyrical reflections of techgnosticism and Alvin Toffler’s prophetic writings on technocracy. Its flipside ‘The Golden Ratio’ is dreamier and sensuous in classic electro context, flush with nightglyde pads and snappy groovers moxie to oil the hips and shoulders of veterans and wide-eyed noobs alike.
Cybotron was the first of a series of coded terms of “technospeak” shared between a precocious young Juan Atkins with guidance from Vietnam war veteran, Rik Davis. Combining their music technological skills and know-how in a time before drum machines like the Roland TR-808 were on the market, Cybotron innovated a form of music, that was dissolving the boundary between singer, songwriter, and producer
Hit singles “Alleys of Your Mind” and “Cosmic Cars” were released and broadcasted mere months before Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock,” leading a wave of electronic funk, termed “electro,” that would spread across the US through strains of hip hop and bass music from New York to Miami to LA. As Marvin Gaye introduced the broader public to the infamous 808 beat during a “Sexual Healing” era rendition of the American national anthem at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game, Cybotron’s debut album “Enter” was forging the path towards the future of music.
Written by The Rhythmanalyst 2023