Mayday

My ears have been very much attuned to techno recently, especially the futuristic sounds coming out of Detroit between 1987 and 1989. There are lots of discussions and arguments in music about firsts, who made the first record in a particular style, who the inventor or originator was. This record, Nude Photo, made by Derrick May as Rhythim Is Rhythim, is arguably the first techno record and it is sublime, hitting the head and feet equally with its marriage of rhythm and melody, and the shock of otherness. There are arguments that Model 500's No UFOs was first or Cybotron was. Others argue that these were electro rather than techno. It gets like that. And it doesn't really matter I suppose.

We have spent some time this week emptying some cupboards and drawers, de-cluttering, rationalising and in some cases chucking shit out. Why I had kept hold of some things? Why had I saved not one, not two, but five old mobile phones? This was made much easier by listening to Innovator, a 1991 six track vinyl compilation of Derrick May's work, where he invents much of the sound of the modern world.