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Podcast: MAEKAN
Episode:

The Golden Years — Detroit Techno's Warehouse Scene
Category: Arts and Design
Duration: 01:06:29
Publish Date: 2018-07-08 16:09:02
Description:

"See you at the Packard" was what Detroit youth would say as they parted ways at the city's coffee shops, before regrouping after sunset. Opened in 1903, the Packard Plant was a grand statement of the booming American car industry. Yet the mid-century recession meant the 3,500,000-square-foot plant was left abandoned. In 1957, the plant closed its doors to the auto business, and in its replacement laid the foundation to a musical subculture that shaped electronic music today: techno.

The Packard, alongside neighboring defunct warehouses such as Mack & Bellevue, Bridge Space (which was tucked underneath the Ambassador Bridge), and the Banco building, became the stomping grounds for experimental scenes and site-specific projects that responded to the tension and disorder caused by economic downturn. Only later would the term "rave" be popularized by the likes of High Times and Mixmag who pinned it with candy-gurning kids in fluorescent color and butterfly wings. Yet in the late '80s to mid '90s, the term had a whole different meaning. It catered to an undercurrent of music lovers who found solace dancing to a futuristic sound characterized by heavy use of synthesizer and '80s drum machines like the Roland TR-808.

Audio by Elphick Wo Text & Photos by Arthur Bray

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