5 Feb 2012
Detroit techno is architecture. This why there is no narrative progression, no chord changes, no unfolding of themes, no counterpoint. Sound spaces, not sound travelling through time. “So few people understand that” says Mills, talking about minimalism, “how to just let it play…”
The cars and buildings have dematerialised in response to the pull of the future. “We are almost out of the phase of the territorial” says Mills. Detroit, the first portable city. Its inhabitants virtualised it a long time ago. “This is what a lot of people used to do in Detroit. We would create a track just for the ambience, just for the location where you live, and let it run throughout the day. This is not music you’re eventually going to put on DAT and sell. It’s just for living in.”
— http://www.harikunzru.com/jeff-mills-techno-futurism-1998 (via thegrumpyowl)
