A Return to Techno's Roots
Welcome to On Beat, my weekly space for music, musings, and parties in the Bay and beyond.
Music binds us. It’s been with us. It’s within our bodies as long as we listen to our internal rhythm.
For every expression of gratitude, there is a moment of movement. I see the joy on people’s faces. I see the hips swinging and heads bobbing as if to catch up with the rhythm of the music swirling throughout their bodies. They could be crafters making figurines and poofballs at the bright, spacious Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco. They could onesie-wearing ravers gyrating in a dim, intimate room surrounded by stuffed animals in Oakland. They could be concertgoers transfixed on an icon inside SF’s iconic venue, 1015 Folsom.
These days, life is about interrogating identities: I juggle Eddie the writer with Black Panda the artist. I spent the last decade working for magazines and news outlets like Mother Jones, Vanity Fair, and the Guardian. I’ve written for places like The New York Times Magazine, The Oregonian, and the New York Daily News. I’ve written about racial inequity in America and how divisions are explored in society, whether on the ground, in our communities, or in film and television.
At the same time, as an artist, I cultivated community of BIPOC artists at Burning Man through the BIPOC Beats Collective. I’ve extended that mindfulness and consciousness to the events I’m producing. Of course, I’ve played cool parties in even cooler clubs and environments throughout the last year. But I care more about deepening my relationships with others to show the power of music as binding agent.
Music is the Answer to My Trauma
I took a break from journalism last year. After more than a decade immersed in the practice, I experienced burnout. The exposure to trauma by proxy each day drained me. Only now do I feel healed enough to write again.
When I worked as a journalist, I rarely shared what I thought. Whenever I earned recognition or won an award, I brushed it off. I acknowledged it and moved on. More work unpacking the racial disparities that beset American life needed—and needs—to be done.
I needed to let go, too.
Djing and writing and producing music became a form of therapy. So, as I dip back into the writing life, I’m creating On Beat as a way to continue that exploration of art and craft with my community. It’s what I do as an artist every day, so why not share it with you?
Every Sunday, I’ll lead with my curiosity and share my insights into the cultural happenings around us. It could be about Love Island, Love Is Blind, and the unending pursuit of “love” in the age of clout. It could be unpacking the gentrification of Afro House and the desire to honor its origins in South Africa. It will often be scenes from the music world, based on what I’m seeing in the Bay.
I’ll share stories around the Internet that have hit my soul, as well as some insight into why they resonated, just as I would with my writer friends. I’ll share my musings on the music world as I navigate through it as a DJ, producer, and community builder. I’ll meditate on the history of the music I love and give you a glimpse into how that history resonates with my heart and in my sets.
After all, stories are everywhere—in the words we read, the music we listen to, the scenes we watch from afar. Here’s one of them.
A quick aside: I’d love for you to subscribe to this little meditative experience called a newsletter. If you’ve been to my shows as Black Panda, you know I love to stay connected to the people around me. Much love.
The Gift of Gathering
The night started with a gift. As crafters passed me by, a woman came up to me and handed me a green figurine she made at the table across from me, “Thanks for the tunes.” It brought me back to the countless raves I’ve been to throughout the years, where a moment of appreciation came in the form of a trinket. I’ve often handed out little pandas as a way to remind people they have a companion.
Behind the brim of my white and black bucket hat, I watched bodies of all identities—Black, white, queer, trans—gyrating as a Black forefather of Techno, Jeff Mills, conducted a symphony of acidic melodies and rumbling bass into the early morning. He wore white in a sea of darkness. I closed my eyes and felt the soulful, hypnotic sonic symphony rushing through me.
To some, the pulsating kick drum, harsh hi-hats, and bellowing frequencies blasting through the sound system would be anything but a meditative experience. I couldn’t help but turn to several Techno-loving friends in the crowd and liken Mills’ flow to jazz. All the more so when he fired up the drum machine hovering over his turntables and carefully tapped on it like a pianist—his hands, like his music, were loose, his hits free-flowing.
I marveled at how this night unfolded. Here we are, at 2 a.m., watching a 60-year-old Black Techno pioneer share his gift with a San Francisco crowd for one night. Just hours earlier, I had shared jazzy House tracks from yesteryear with people making pipe cleaner figurines.
Two generations, connected by music.
And yet, Black and queer artists from Detroit, Chicago, New York, and beyond are forgotten for their contributions to dance music. One of the most hurtful exclusions occured when Techno was commemorated in a museum in Frankfurt, Germany.
As T.M. Brown wrote in the New Yorker.
The situation escalated when Peter Feldmann, then the mayor of Frankfurt, sent an invitation for MOMEM’s opening party welcoming guests “in the middle of Frankfurt, where Techno has its origin.” The accumulated snubs set off a conflagration in the fiercely protective Techno community: female:pressure, a global consortium of women, nonbinary, and trans electronic-music artists, wrote an open letter condemning what they saw as the patriarchal whitewashing of a genre created by nonwhite and queer artists. “Should the claim be a pure marketing measure,” the letter stated, “it inadmissibly exploits the cultures of people with histories of migration and oppression by marginalizing their achievements.”
For the members of Underground Resistance, MOMEM also represented something else: the continued neglect of Techno—and Detroit—in the U.S.
The Techno heads of today may have been inspired by the German underground. But those German artists were drawn to the experimentation from a group of Black kids in Detroit who made their way across the pond when their music was seen and heard. Lest we forget the Belleville Three:
Three Michigan kids named Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson heard the future of music in House. The trio are considered the godfathers of Techno and are affectionately referred to as the Belleville Three, named after the lakeside town where they went to high school. (Their friend and collaborator Eddie Fowlkes, a Detroit native who was also highly influential in the development of Techno, is sometimes called the Belleville Fourth.) They were heavily influenced by the free-form radio stylings of the Detroit d.j. the Electrifying Mojo, who was spinning everything from Prince to J. Geils Band to Parliament-Funkadelic during his nocturnal shows. Crucially, Mojo was also playing records from the Düsseldorf band Kraftwerk, whose ghostly machine music, along with the ecstatic grooves coming out of Chicago, gave the Belleville Three a blueprint for their own spare sound.
Ironically, the members of Kraftwerk were themselves deeply influenced by Motown and soul artists like James Brown. But, instead of emulating the raw American sound, they stripped everything down to an icy, chrome-plated core. It was distinctly German, a feat of musical engineering from experimentally inclined musicians. But it still lit something inside the artists putting together their first sets in Detroit. The d.j. Carl Craig once famously described Kraftwerk as “so stiff, they were funky.”
But at 1015 Folsom in San Francisco, Detroit Techno was not forgotten. To see Mills capture the predominantly white audience was to see a beautiful reclamation in action. Mills, who started Underground Resistance with Mike “Mad” Banks in 1989, transfixed us, just as he has for decades.
His improvisations, his calm, collected presence, his hypnotic approach to the craft—it all felt of a different era, and yet it resonated across generations. The past remains present, especially in music.
That night, I hugged friend and lauded Black Techno artist, Mysty, as we watched our melanated ravers sway with joy. We reveled in the blackness of the music around us, just as our ancestors did at The Warehouse, The Loft, and Paradise Garage. Mills finished his set not with Techno, but with House. Joe Smooth’s Promised Land echoed off the walls. Marshall Jefferson’s House Music Anthem blared, telling us once more to “Move Ya Body.”
Mills smiled and lifted his hand to the crowd one last time.
I can’t wait to experience him again at the Mecca of Techno, Movement Festival, at the end of May. So if you’re going, let me know. The week after, I’m throwing my first ever venue takeover, Paradise Found. I’ll keep you posted about tickets and such. I’m equally sad to see another Techno pioneer, Carl Cox, postpone his set but we’ll see him again, particularly at Burning Man.
The Artist And Me
Over the past year, I’ve discovered an important lesson: We need to slow down and appreciate little wins along the way. If you know me from my DJ/producer alter ego, Black Panda, you know that I’ve leaned into the vulnerability of self whenever I share the beautiful moments on the dance floor together on Instagram.
So, I’ll also use this space to keep everyone updated on what’s new and what’s to come for me as Black Panda, the artist.
For now, here are my whereabouts as Black Panda for March, with a little save the date surprise in May. The gigs keep mounting, so here’s a public calendar you can subscribe to as you follow along the journey:
Thursday, February 27 - Silk Sessions @ Nosso (Oakland): I can’t wait to share some soulful jackin House music in The Town. This crew Silk has been doing incredible work to evangelize Blackness in House music around the Bay. It’ll be an intimate night in Oakland, where I live, so be sure to sign up here.
Saturday, March 15 - Throwback Beats @ Spacement SF. We’re bringing some classic House and Techno to an incredible community space in San Francisco. We’re keeping this one small and intimate from 7:30 pm - 12 a.m. If you’re interested, sign up.
Sunday, March 16 - Pandamonium, Fault Radio, and Friends Present: Soul Salon @ Studio Aurora (SF): I can’t wait to share all the details about this event we’re putting together, but it’s going to be special. My friend and collaborator Ed Hofmann and I have been talking about his Sunday day party idea for a while now, and it’s finally coming to life. We’re so stoked to bring this idea to life at Fault Radio’s new space, Studio Aurora, in SF’s Mission District. Noon - 6 p.m. Save the date.
My partner and I are off to Australia for two weeks. If anybody from Sydney happens to be reading this, I’d love to play at one of your events. Maybe your iconic rooftops along the harbor? Here’s my Electronic Press Kit (EPK).
Saturday, May 31 - Pandamonium Presents: Paradise Found @ Bergerac (SF): We’re working through the details. But so far, we’re going to have audiovisuals, go-go dancers, and incredible soulful music. Save the date for now.
Let’s Not Forget
As a treat for making it to the end, here’s a pic of my beloved pup, Nano, who has doubled as my manager.
Edwin “Eddie” Rios is a Brooklyn-born, Oakland-based freelance writer and DJ/producer (Black Panda). You can find his writing life here. You can follow his musical journey here. And here’s his SoundCloud and Spotify. Share this with your friends.
I’m in the bay regularly because my sister lives there! I’ll have to plan my next trip around one of your gigs. Also Imani Mixon, another Medill grad, wrote a story for the Metro Times a few years ago about the Detroit/Black origins of techno: https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit-guides/detroit-is-techno-city-and-techno-is-black-12291432
So happy you are doing this! I often feel the history of house and techno get so lost. Know history, know self! No history, no self!