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Techno Snobs x Walter Productions:Kevin Saunderson / DJ Minx
+ Cd-6
Friday Feb 14 / 9pm - 2am / 21+
Walter Where?House (702 N. 21st Ave, Phx)
Kevin Saunderson bio
Platinum-selling recording artist, label boss, festival promoter, true innovator in the pantheon of popular music, cultural champion, cracking DJ: there’s a lot to be said about Kevin Saunderson.
His influence runs deep, through both adopted hometown of Detroit, and music culture as a whole: as one of the Belleville Three, the high school trio which also includes Juan Atkins and Derrick May, he irreparably changed the face of electronic music; with Inner City, he gave it some of its most memorable tunes.
The genesis of today’s enormous techno scene can be retraced straight to Kevin, Derrick and Juan, as their formative experiments on rudimentary hardware sketched a blueprint for a genre that was yet to exist. By absorbing Kraftwerk, cutting-edge funk, local radio stalwart The Electrifying Mojo’s electicism, and all manner of new synthesiser and drum machine-led pop music, the Belleville Three broke new ground as musicians and DJs in the 80s.
Saunderson’s comparatively late start as a producer – kicking off in ’87 under the moniker of Kreem, with E-Dancer and Reese two of the more well-known names to follow – inadvertently gifted him a headstart. With the eruption of house music a few hours down the I-94 in Chicago, Saunderson married Detroit’s raw sound to more tactile, pop-leaning sensibilities. Inner City was born, and global success followed.
Between “Big Fun”, “Good Life”, debut album Paradise and a number of follow-up singles, Inner City (Saunderson and vocalist Paris Grey) amassed 12 UK top 40 hits and over six million records sold worldwide during their peak. A dancefloor-dominating remix by Luciano in 2008, and a globetrotting reunion tour in 2012, underscores the longevity of Inner City’s classic sound.
His nickname of ‘The Elevator’ is apt: for his role in transporting Detroit’s new sound to a wider audience; as anyone who has seen him perform live can attest, his high-energy, high-spirit and high-impact DJ sets; and for spending the past 35 years of his life progressing the culture he helped create.
Operating in tandem to his golden run as a producer in the late 80s and early 90s, Saunderson’s own KMS record label – a remarkable 30 years strong in 2017 – has chronicled the early footsteps of R-Tyme, Blake Baxter, MK, Chez Damier, Derrick Carter, Bicep and even Saunderson’s son and regular DJ partner Dantiez more recently.
Saunderson has a behind-the-scenes role to play, too: he is intertwined with the history of Detroit’s flagship Movement (formerly Detroit Electronic Music Festival Fuse-In). Having produced the event in the mid-2000s, the last handful of years have seen repeated invites from Movement to display his ORIGINS showcase at the festival, bringing acts like Delano Smith, Phuture and DJ Minx under his curatorial umbrella.
And of course, with a stacked international touring schedule over the decades, playing in nearly every country and at nearly every festival or club worth mention, he has not stopped pushing the feeling of techno on and on.
The Groove That Won’t Stop, indeed.
DJ Minx
A longtime fixture of Detroit’s club scene, DJ Minx is often referred to as the First Lady of Wax.Her mix sets as well as her productions range from deep and minimal to boisterous and funky, and she’s earned respect throughout the techno and house scenes. Active as a DJ since the early 1990s, she formed the Women on Wax collective and label, and started releasing tracks in the early 2000s, scoring an underground hit with the 2003 minimal house track “A Walk in the Park.” She continued honing her craft over the years and began receiving more widespread recognition during the 2010s, as her international bookings increased and she released further singles, like 2022’s “Do It All Night.”
Jennifer Damaris was born in Detroit in 1967. She began to DJ after a friend took her to see Derrick May spin at a club called the Music Institute in 1989. As DJ Minx, she started playing sets at another Detroit club, the Loft, and other parties in the city. She became close friends with Kevin Saunderson during the mid-’90s, and he gave her some guidance and encouraged her to develop her own style. Minx hosted a program called Deep Space Radio on Detroit station WGPR, and she provided voice overs on Saunderson’s X-Mix: Transmission from Deep Space Radio, a 1997 mix CD modeled after the show. Minx hosted another show called Steamy
Windows on CJAM, broadcasting from the University of Windsor, and she became a resident DJ at Club Motor in Hamtramck, Michigan, where she opened for established DJs from Detroit and abroad. She performed at the first Detroit Electronic Music Festival in 2000 and continued to play the festival annually, including its subsequent iterations as Movement and Fuse-In.
Minx formed Women on Wax, a collective of female DJs and producers from the Detroit area, in late 1996, and she launched the label Women on Wax Recordings in 2001. Her debut EP, Introduction, was released as a white-label 12″ that year, and it was followed by Airborne in 2003. One of the record’s tracks, “A Walk in the Park,” became a hit among minimal techno DJs, and Richie Hawtin re-released it on his M_nus imprint, with remixes by producers like Ricardo Villalobos and Matthew Dear. Minx released the EP Fuzzy Navel in 2004 and collaborated with fellow Detroit house producer Pirahnahead as Animal Trax. Minx’s Midnite Bullet EP appeared
in 2008, and she made a brief appearance on Andrés’ 2009 album II.
More than two decades after she began her career in the club scene, DJ Minx finally started receiving recognition as a dance music legend during the 2010s. In 2015, Mixmag named her as one of the 20 women who shaped the history of dance music, and Time Out New York included her in a list of the Top Ten house DJs of all time in 2016. She was awarded the Spirit of Detroit award by the city council in 2018, along with Stacey Hotwaxx Hale, Underground Resistance’s Bridgette Banks, and other women who played a major role in Detroit’s dance scene. Minx left her job in the Detroit auto industry and pursued music full-time. She released several singles and EPs during the early 2020s, including Violet Groove, which featured an updated version of “A Walk in the Park.”
Minx came out as a lesbian in 2021, during Pride Month. Soon after, her image was featured in a mural on the side of Detroit’s Ruth Ellis Center dedicated to the city’s queer community, and her single “Purse First ” was released, with proceeds benefiting the LGBTQ+ community center. She also released an EP titled Queendom on London-based HE.SHE.THEY. and shared a split EP with another veteran Detroit producer, Gari Romalis. In 2022, Minx made her first appearance on BBC Radio 1’s long-running Essential Mix. Her song “Do It All Night,” previously featured on Carl Craig’s 2019 mix Detroit Love, Vol. 2, was given a full release on Planet E, with remixes by Craig and Honey Dijon. Minx continued playing at clubs and festivals around the world, and she was asked to curate her own stage at the 2022 edition of Movement. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
702 N 21st Ave, Phoenix, AZ, United States, Arizona 85009
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