Derrick May, BirdsMakingMachine [LiVE]

Forefather of electronic dance music, Derrick May returns to Flash. Few people have influenced dance music as much as the Detroit-native and member of the original Belleville Three. We owe a great debt to Derrick May for his ingenuity and pioneering spirit, and are pleased to host him for an extended set. BirdsMakingMachine is a collective of wandering artists interested in music, design and of course, birds. Slope Traxx boss and purveyor of slinking house grooves, Jubilee plays first. Flash resident Edo is joined by Spy Bar Chicago's Wahi in Flash Bar.

Derrick May

soundcloud | facebook

Derrick May (born June 4, 1963), also known as Mayday and Rhythim is Rhythim, is an electronic musician from Belleville, Michigan, United States. He was an only child[1] born in Detroit and began to explore electronic music early in his life. Along with his Belleville, Michigan high school friends Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson, commonly known as the Belleville Three, May is credited with developing the futuristic variation on house music that would be dubbed "techno" by Atkins.

Of the Belleville Three, the cadre of early Detroit producers who tested the limits of spirit within electronic dance music and changed the integrity of the form forever, Derrick May's reputation as an originator remained intact despite more than a decade of recording inactivity. While Juan Atkins is rightly looked at as the godfather of techno, with a recording career beginning in the electro scene of the early '80s and encompassing some of the most inspired tracks in the history of dance music; and Kevin Saunderson is the Detroit producer with the biggest mainstream success through his work with vocalist Paris Grey as Inner City, May's position as an auteur eroded slightly during the 1990s due to a largely inexplicable lack of activity.

As far as influence counts as part of the equation, however, May recorded the techno tracks which top dance producers point to as the most original and influential. The classic Derrick May sound is a clever balance between streamlined percussion-heavy cascades of sound with string samples and a warmth gained from time spent in Chicago, enraptured by the grooves of essential DJs like Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles. May's Transmat Records label was the home of his best material, cuts like "Nude Photo," "Strings of Life," "Kaos" and "It Is What It Is," most produced from 1987 to 1989 as Rhythim Is Rhythim. And though his release schedule all but halted during the 1990s, he continued DJing around the world and honed Transmat into one of the most respected techno labels in the world.

BirdsMakingMachine

soundcloud | facebook | twitter

Since he was a kid, he had an intense relationship with music through his father, an executive of the record label RCA. He grew up among thousands of vinyl, listening to them every time he got the chance.

After a decade of being part of a few rock bands and hosting a radio show, he left his country looking for new challenges. This journey took him through LA, South East Asia and Ibiza before finally relocating to Barcelona. Here he started a project called Curtis & Estrada releasing on labels like Rennaissance, Malatoid, SecretWeapon, HighSeven, Dots. During this period, he also held a four-year residency at Moog Club in Barcelona and performed in clubs such as Privilege, D-Edge, M.Gennerali , Space, Kubik and The End.

In 2011 he met with longtime friends Rudolf, Viudez and Ricardo and after endless afternoons in the studio, the birdsmakingmachine concept was created. As an artist collective and a record label, the group has released six EP’s under its own name, and collaborations with Minus, Cadenza, Eklo, Half Baked, Only 300, Sol Asylum, Finest Hour. They performed in different venues such as Fabric, Club der VIsionaire, Hoppetosse , Sankeys, Verboten , Billares Londres, Three House. These days, Pior is fully focused in the birdsmakingmachine project, producing and performing as birdsmakingmachine live.

Jubilee

soundcloud | facebook | resident advisor | slope traxx