Model 500
Classics

"It's as if George Clinton and Kraftwerk were trapped in an elevator with only a sequencer to keep them company"

With these words, Derrick May, in a 1988 interview, gave a crystal-clear definition of "techno music". Any attempt to simplify the boundaries of this genre to the minimum would, however, deviate from any possibility of realizing how this new approach has influenced and marked so much production to come. Both in composition and in live performance. If we wanted to find a seminal moment and, above all, a protagonist for this story, we could focus on a teenage Juan Atkins in 1978. Up until that moment, in love with Parliament and funk rhythms, he found himself holding an unknown instrument for the first time. That synthesizer, which would soon lead him to a visceral love for Giorgio Moroder and Kraftwerk, produced sounds worthy of a grand UFO landing. Dragging the older Richard Davis into this new passion, he founded Cybotron with him and managed in 1982 to record Enter, an album still far from what would follow, still anchored to the canons of new wave and the influences of groups like Ultravox and personalities like Ryuichi Sakamoto. Despite this, the first hints of what techno will do in the future are all there: "Clear" is a clear example of being ahead of its time, almost disarming if you contextualize the production of the two. Detroit of those years begins to host the Zeitgeist of the unstoppable electronic revolution. By passing on this vigor and desire to experiment to friends Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, he becomes a real mentor to them. Strong from this bond, he abandons the collaboration with Davis and, in 1985, founds the Metroplex label, inaugurating it with the single "No UFO's" under the name Model 500 (a name under which the triad Atkins-May-Saunderson is hidden). With this release, Atkins intended to cover the label's expenses, not imagining the sales boom that would take his name far beyond the Detroit scene.

"No UFO's" marks the beginning of techno music, giving significant resonance to the Detroit scene. These years are characterized by the rivalry with nearby Chicago, home of what future generations would label as House. Honestly, the differences between Detroit techno and Chicago House lie more in the approach than in the musical style: the scene owes its name to the Warehouse in Chicago, being more tied to sampling and the frequent cut-and-paste from other tracks, more interested in the possibilities of new technological discoveries in music, the scene is aptly called techno. Following the growing success, Atkins becomes the guru of this musical scene, churning out a series of singles in the eighties that will indelibly mark the history of techno and electronic music as a whole.

"Classics", released in 1993, collects what our protagonist achieved in the second half of the eighties under the name Model 500. In simple terms: the birth certificate of techno. Starting from the seminal "No UFO's" up to the disorienting "Sound of Stereo" from 1987, this compilation rightfully assumes the title of a historical documentary, containing among its grooves that fusion of warmth and cold schemes characteristic of Atkins' genius. Try to follow the bass of "The Chase" transversely cut by pads and synths; the resulting outcome is worth an entire career. To demonstrate that what the three achieved at that time is light years ahead in the electronic field, the example of "Nightdrive" could be cited. The track, dated 1985, is already surprising in its outset: a syncopated bass drum that throws an alien, cold, and yet seductive sound at the listener: a true gem in the production of Model 500. The nine tracks should be mentioned one by one ("Ocean to Ocean" is concrete proof that many newcomers have invented nothing) as vast was their influence on what would happen between the eighties and nineties: Madchester and Hacienda, the first raves, the introduction of electronic equipment even in more traditional formations, the arc of bands stretching from Primal Scream to Prodigy...

Thanks to the work of these three pioneers, much has changed in the way composition, recording, performing, and even reproducing musical tracks are conceived. Placed on a path that leads from Stockhausen to Daft Punk, through the customary Kraftwerk and Moroder, Atkins has proven to be one of the most influential minds of the digital revolution, delivering to music history one of its happiest chapters. Time, Space, Transmat.