A few personal highlights from this past weekend's Detroit Electronic Music festival:

UNTITLED at the top two floors of the Iodent Building Friday night. Jon Ozias is hands down the most imaginative event producer in Detroit. Great sound, great vibe, and totally unique. (And the music killed.) Quite possibly the best UNTITLED yet.

Perspects live at the Canniball event at Oslo Saturday night + superb sets from BMG, Carlos Souffront, Plaslaiko and Mr. Sines. It was an honor to be a part of this night.

Surprise Minus after-party Sunday morning/afternoon with all our old New York and Berlin friends. The sick new Audion track was played no less than five times between 8am and 2pm, but no complaints here. Sick.

Chemlab Jared accidentally having his earring ripped right out of his head while performing, and not missing a beat at the Labyrinth Sunday night. Not really a highlight, but he'll never forget Detroit. "Yeah, it hurt like a motherfucker."

Stopping in at the pitch black, sweaty, and loud as god Ghostly party around 5am Monday and teaching SV4 the secret bat handshake.

Getting three hours of precious sleep before sound check at Hart Plaza bright and early Monday morning.

The absolutely professional and courteous Darkcourse and Movement staff. The industrial stage ran like a Swiss watch. The sound and video was top notch. Every need was anticipated and dialed in. We were totally blown away.

Not only having the opportunity to see our friends Kill Memory Crash and Chemlab perform at the festival, but playing with them, and later watching Nitzer Ebb stage-side with them, was almost too much. Nitzer Ebb was a religious experience, and it was very refreshing to see a broader range of electronic music represented at the festival. It can only be nostalgic about Detroit Techno for so long.

As far as Dethlab's set went, we had a blast and made a lot of new friends/fans, but were more than a little nervous with so many people watching us. Very important lessons learned: never ever DJ totally sober, and don't leave home without fake blood! The Passion Boys will be pleased to know that Firemans was a hit.

Extra special thanks to Phoenix Perry for flying in on short notice to run six hours of killer live video for the stage. We definitely owe her one. :)

Oh, come on Chris... there is nothing more real than what is created by human ingenuity and craft, of which synthesizers are one of the most elegant examples.

My mistake for misreading Chris' comment. I ought to konw his sense of humor better!

I recently became a bit burned out by electronica (and didn't even have the excuse of DEMF) and picked up a couple of gorgeous albums of "real" instrument magic: Steely Dan"s "Can't Buy A Thrill" and Marvin Gaye's post divorce "Here, My Dear". Both unfortunately a bit lost in the 70's melee of memorables but an oh so warm respite for the synth-weary....

Tonight's DEMF agenda: pure eeeeeeeeeevil.

5pm KIll Memory Crash (Real Detroit stage)
6pm DethLab (Real Detroit stage)
7pm Chemlab (Real Detroit stage)
8:30pm Nitzer Ebb (Main stage)
10pm Richie Hawtin (Main stage)

Because it's not really hardcore unless you can party for FOUR days straight in Detroit...

Tonight:

The working prototype of MIT's $100 laptop was unveiled earlier this week by the non-profit association One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). Photos from the unveiling at Flickr.

I love BMW's "No." campaign.

With North America's biggest electronic music festival starting in two days, visiting ravers should be very weary of taking candy from strangers. Herion and cocaine cut with fentanyl has led to 19 deaths in the past week alone. Not that you should be doing drugs anyway, but consider this a very serious PSA. Dead friends are no fun.

SensiTile is a dynamic light conducting material - consider it a lo-fi and more architectural alternate to reactive sensor and LED-based products, and it's made right here in Detroit.

[I first saw this a couple years ago and misplaced the link. Thanks to Alex@o2 for rediscovering it!]

Tomorrow Detroit institution Neptune Records will close its doors for the last time. As of yesterday there were still quite a few gems to be found at a decent discount.

Neptune's Michael Segal and Ghostly International recently launched Boy Cat Bird dot com, the virtual home to Segal's quirky characters which have become Ghostly's beloved mascots. Check back every week for a new adventure. (It's okay if you don't always get it.)

As the weather has finally stabilized (as much as it can in Michigan,) the planned cours des operations at Burnlab base camp for the rest of the summer is grilling almost every day. To kick off the season, tonight's menu started with caprese salad and smoked trout, followed by grilled asparagus and sweet corn brushed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar with sea salt, and seared (read: bloody) petite lamb chops marinated in truffle oil, garlic and crushed black pepper, topped with a dab of horseradish under a slice of sharp Stilton, and served with a nice Chianti... of course.

I'd write more about DEMF activities, but we're slipping into food coma for evening here...

The world would be a much happier place if everyone consumed more raw meat and good wine.

On a separate note, huge thanks to Jason and Gregory and all of our friends in Toronto for a fun-filled weekend. To save embarrassment, I won't post a link to the photos (but they are floating around on the internets for those willing to dig. tag: OMG RAVERZ)

Dethlab at the DEMF


[click for large image]

Ms. Toybreaker and I are honored to be playing three excellent events with some of our favorite people this weekend:

Saturday, 5.27.06: Canniball [flyer by AS1 front | back]
Oslo
1456 Woodward Ave., Detroit
10pm- | 18+
w/ Shake, Perpsects [live], BMG of Ectomorph, Derek Plaslaiko, Carlos Souffront and more.
[Dethlab 10pm-11pm, so come early!]
info: Interdimensional Transmissions

Sunday, 5.28.06: Old School Vol. 2 [flyer by Klever front | back]
Labyrinth
400 Bagley, Detroit
10pm- | 18+
w/ Chemlab [live], Acid Junkies [live], Asrock of Final Cut and more.
[Dethlab 12am-1am, before Chemlab]
info: Dark Course

Monday, 5.29.06: Movement: Dark Course Showcase [flyer by Klever]
Real Detroit Stage, Hart Plaza, Detroit
2pm- | all ages
updated lineup with set times:
2-3 pm: F.I.S.T.
3-4 pm: Chris Rohn
4-5 pm: Asrock of The Final Cut
5-6 pm: Kill Memory Crash [live]
6-7 pm: DethLab
7-8 pm: Chemlab [live]
8:30pm-10pm: Nizter Ebb [live - main stage]
+ video/animation by Burnlab's own Phoenix Perry
info: DEMF.com

Hot off the internets: Ghostly ringtones!

(I was actually hoping for cheese-tastic MIDI versions of all my favorites. Curse you, polyphonic phones.)

Keeping it evil: Just pretend the rave scene's devastating influence (read: goth trance *shudder*) on electronic body music never ever happened and enjoy this video clip of Motor live in Paris + their new video for Black Powder.

if tom waits, broadcast and esquivel collaborated: Psapp... gorgeously original music (a friend called it "tom waits has sex change and goes samba")

After a winter hiatus, tonight is the triumphant return of We R DJ. Panic, Burgundy, Betty Marie and Alec Metallic invite you to "dance yr head off" at the Bohemian National Home: 3009 Tillman, Detroit MI.




Tomorrow night is the May installment of the party that put the gay back in gay: Nathan Raport and Mike Servito present Sass at OSLO.

Thinking inside the box:

Apple unveils it's long-anticipated glass cube on 5th Avenue, and sharp new Mobius Band video by Wyeth Hansen.

my addition to the color black theme: Massive Black, an entertainment design company a friend is doing some work for...beautiful stuff

Engineering Desire

Two sexy new All is Full of Love-inspired Lexus commercials:

"touchy robots" and "goosebumps".

Get your 'stache on now. The next World Beard and Moustache Championships are coming up Sept. 1, 2007 in Brighton England. More info here.

[this post dedicated to Barbara Frey]