PUT UP OR SHUT UP
“The best thing about Detroit is the people. They have to be some of the warmest people you’ll ever meet, and some of the strongest people you’ll meet.
“When somebody says, ‘W’re gonna do such and so,’ you say, ‘OK, that’s just talk.’ But when you do it, that’s when it means something in Detroit. That’s that working town ethic. It’s a put up or shut up town.” THEO PARRISH
In 1987, a group of street artists in Detroit created posters featuring photographs of various disintegrating downtown structures and attached them to each of the buildings with the caption Demolished by Neglect. Once a glorious metropolis held aloft by a thriving American automotive industry, by the 70s Detroit was in terminal decline; the departure of Motown in ’72 was, to many, a symbol of the impending degneration. Yet, out of the empty boulevards and tangle of desolate freeways emerged musicians whose influence resonates just as strongly today as it did twenty years ago, musicians who epitomise our own belief that it’s not the external resources at your disposal that matter, but what you feel inside: imagination, creativity, determination.
More on Detroit and the pioneers of techno will follow. In the meantime, here’s a great video following Theo Parrish, who moved to Detroit in ’94, around the city with his beloved field recorder.
