Our co-editor Ryan Clarke has researched a list of articles, interviews and documentaries about techno and its history. We have compiled it into this library that will be updated as we find more relevant work.
It is organized by date and divided into two lists “Reading” and “Audio/Visual”.
Reading
On Repetition in Black Culture, by James A. Snead, 1981
Machine Soul: A History Of Techno, by Jon Savage, 1993
The Black Atlantic, by Paul Gilroy, 1993
The Roots of Techno, by Dan Sicko, 1994
Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital, by Sarah Thornton, 1995
The Constructivist Moment: From El Lissitzky to Detroit Techno, by Barrett Watten, 1997
The Cultural Politics of Dance Music, by David Hesmondhalgh, 1997
A Tale of Two Cities: Our 1998 Feature on the Racial Politics of Detroit Techno, by Mike Rubin, 1998
More Brilliant Than The Sun: Adventures In Sonic Fiction: Concept Engineered, by Kodwo Eshun, 1998
techno! the new dance sound of detroit, by Stuart Cosgrove, 1998
Techno Bodies: Muscling with Gender in Contemporary Dance, by Ann Cooper Albright, 1998
An interview with James Stinson, by Andrew Duke, 1999
“Back to the Future”: Hearing, Rituality, and Techno, by Tim Becker, Raphael Woebs and Linda Fuji, 1999
Techno Rebels, by Dan Sicko, 1999
“Africa As an Alien Future”: The Middle Passage, Afrofuturism, and Postcolonial Waterworld, by Ruth Mayer, 2000
In the Mix: Hearing the Souls of Black Folk, by Alexander Weheliye, 2000
Music; Techno Dances With Jazz, by Mike Rubin, 2001
Black Street Technology: Detroit Techno and the Information Age, Ben Williams, 2001
Existential Strategies: The Making of Community and Politics in the Techno/Rave Scene, by Ronald Hitzler and Michaela Pfadenhauer, 2002
Further Considerations on Afrofuturism, by Kodwo Eshun, 2003
In the Flesh Again, Keleigh Casper, 2004
Music Is the Message (Jeff Mills is the prophet of Detroit Techno. Hari Kunzru spoke to him…), by Hari Kunzru, 2004
Post Soul Futurama: African American cultural politics and early Detroit Techno, by Sean Abiez, 2005
Blackness in Present Future Tense: Broadside Press, Motown Records, and Detroit Techno by Wendy S. Walters, 2006
The Aquatic Invasion: A Drexciya Discography Review, by Shawn O’Sullivan, 2006
Detroit’s rhythmic resistance: Electronic music and community pride, by Carla Vecchiola, 2006
Over the Edge: Pushing the Boundaries of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, edited by Rhonda Dass, Anthony Guest-Scott, J. Meryl Krieger and Adam Zolkover, 2007
Is This the Future? Black Music and Technology Discourse, by Nabeel Zuberi, 2007
Fear Of A Wet Planet, Kodwo Eshun, 2009
Mixed Messages: Resistance and Reappropriation in Rave Culture, by Brian L. Ott & Bill D. Herman, 2009
The Race For Cyberspace: Information Technology in the Black Diaspora, by Julian Bleecker, 2010
Submerge in Detroit: Techno’s Creative Response to Urban Crisis, by C. Vecchiola, 2011
Beyond the Hood? Detroit Techno, Underground Resistance, and African American Metropolitan Identity Politics, by Christoph Schaub, 2011
Hooked on an Affect: Detroit Techno and Dystopian Digital Culture, by Richard Pope, 2011
Jeff Mills explores his 10 landmark techo releases, 2011
Building the Beloved Community Through Techno Music Production in Detroit, by Deborah Che, 2012
Vessels of Transfer: Allegories of Afrofuturism in Jeff Mills and Janelle Monáe, by Tobias, C. Van Veen, 2013
The Vibe of the Exiles: Aliens, Afropsychedelia and Psyculture, by Graham St John, 2013
The Roots of Techno: Detroit’s Club Scene 1973-1985, by Ashley Zlatopolsky, 2014
“White Brothers With No Soul” – Un Tuning the Historiography of Berlin Techno, page 40, interview of Professor Alexander G by Annie Goh, 2014 (
Nightclubbing: An Oral History of Detroit’s Motor, by Michaelangelo Matos, 2015
Real estate, gentrification and nightlife in New York, by Max Pearl, 2016
When Techno Was House: Chicago’s Impact on the Birth of Techno, by Jacob Arnold, 2017
Dancing in the Technoculture, by Hillegonda C Rietveld, 2018
Race, Class, and Place in the Origins of Techno and Rap Music, by William Tsitsos, 2018
Gay Black Men Helped Create EDM. Why Do Straight White Men Dominate It?, by Katie Bain, 2018
Detroit is Techno City, and techno is Black, by Imani Mixon, 2018
Inside ‘Neptune’s Lair’: Drexciya, Dystopia and Afrofuturism, by Charlie Mills, (2018 ???)
Keeping it Real, by Ash Lauryn, 2019
Techno is technocracy, by Deforrest Brown Jr, 2019
The Afro-Digital Migration: A DJ’s Journey From Hip Hop to House Music, Lynnée Denise, 2011 (???)
2010-19: Reflections Of A Black Woman In Dance Music, by Ash Lauryn, 2020
Reverse Hallucinations in the Lower Delta, by Ryan Clarke, 2020
Drexciya Research Lab: Interviews/Press/Info Sheets etc – Google Drive, compiled by DRL, 2020
‘Make techno black again’: a social experiment subverts whitewashing in clubs, by Andre Wheeler, 2020
The Untold Story Of The Detroit Regional Music Conference, by Tajh Morris, 2020
Harnessed the Storm–Rereading Drexicya with The Black Atlantic, Mick Harvey, 2020
A Conversation on the Bleaching of Techno: How Appropriation is Normalized and Preserved, by Axmed Maxamed and Mathys Rennela, 2020
Dance Music Pioneer Kevin Saunderson: The Scene Is Still Failing Black Artists, interview by Katie Bain, 2020
Audio/Visual
Detroit The Blueprint Of Techno, documentary produced by Much Music, 1998
Techno City: What is Detroit Techno?, documentary directed by Ben Cohen, 2000
Pump Up the Volume: A History of House Music, produced by Channel 4, 2001
Drexciya Interview, audio interview by Liz Copeland, 2002
Maestro Documentary – (Larry Levan, Paradise Garage History), directed by Josell Ramos, 2003
Mad Mike Banks UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE Interview Part 1 and Part 2, audio interview by True to the Underground, 2004
High Tech Soul: The creation of Techno Music, by Gary Bredow, 2006
Roots of Techno: Black DJs and the Detroit Scene. Session 1, Panelists: Catherine Burkhart, Lina Stephens [absent], Sulaiman Mausi; Moderator: Denise Dalphon, 2006
Roots of Techno: Black DJs and the Detroit Scene. Session 2, Panelists: Rick Wilhite [substituting for Juan Atkins], Mike Clark, Terrence Parker, Cornelius Harris; Moderator: Denise Dalphond, 2006
Roots of Techno: Black DJs and the Detroit Scene. Session 3 (End of Session 2), Panelists: DJ Minx, Theo Parish, Marcellus Pittman ; moderator: Denise Dalphond, 2006
“Black to Techno”, directed by Jenn Nkiru, 2019
