Stacey Pullen - fabric 14

In the late 80's, Stacey Pullen was a club kid getting off on his city's past and present. A few years before, a small group of Detroit residents had pooled their money, knowledge and influences and created a new beat. It merged their industrial landscape's natural sounds with nu-school, European machine music like Kraftwerk, Soft Cell and Tangerine Dream. After a short break to complete his studies, Pullen became a DJ and then a producer. Eventually, he would move Detroit techno forward as purposefully as his mentors had designed it. Like many of his second-wave contemporaries - Carl Craig, Eddie Fowlkes, Blake Baxter - he dragged the template further into the blues and jazz sounds that had filtered through the city from its original slave workforce, re-located from the Deep South in the late 1800's.

"I like trying to take people on a musical journey, which means me playing at least three or four hours. In clubs a lot of people ask 'What are you gonna play tonight?" and I never know... I just play from the heart and I don't categorise it. It's house, techno, broken beat or whatever: if the vibe is right I do it." Stacey Pullen

On his first mix CD for 7 years, Stacey takes us deep between the beats, displaying the unique talent and technique of Detroit's original protege. Cutlab starts with tribal bounce, BB Boogie brings Chic-style call outs, Vibe Residents build a straight-ahead groove and Asad turns Shuffle Heads into a frequency freak-out. Pure Science apes classic Saunderson, Peace Division string a late-night drug vibe, Magoo drowns in hypnotic swirls and Niquid is all wide-eyed vibes. To close, he blends Moodyman's Latin energy, DIY's afro-infused tech-house, Tabass Nocturn's crazed vocoder, Dave Angel's cyclical sounds and Solid Groove's jack-jazz workout.

TRACKLIST:

Cutlab - Spacey Bongo [Black Flag]
BB Boogie - I Got It [Bitasweet Records]
Vibe Residents Ft DragonFly - The DJs Calling [Defected]
Shuffle Heads - Roll Call (Asads Silverlining Mix) [Fremont]
Pure Science - Get It Back [Black Flag]
Peace Division - Beatz In Peacez 03 [NRK]
Magoo - Slips [Cross Section]
Niquid - Saxaphobia [Defected]
Moodymann - Music People [KDJ]
Men With Sticks - 3rd Eye [JBO]
DiY - Hold On [DiY]
OPM - The Drum [Denote]
Dave Angel - Catch 2 [Rotation]
Solid Groove - Flookin' [Loungin']