Following Phil Weeks Parisian house master class we now welcome a true techno legend in every sense of the word. Ladies and Gentlemen – the godfather himself – Mr. Juan Atkins. The man behind Model 500 and Metroplex this time gets to grips with the EPM digital catalogue as we find Robert Hood, Ben Sims, Slam, Martyn Hare, Pig & Dan and Carl Taylor all fighting it out on the floor. As energetic as his own futuristic vision of electronic funk EPM’s new podcast is packed with plenty of techno punch.

At the dawn of the 1980s, Juan Atkins began recording what stands as perhaps the most influential body of work in the field of techno. Exploring his vision of a futuristic music which welded the more cosmic side of Parliament funk with rigid computer synth-pop embodied by Kraftwerk and the techno-futurist possibilities described by sociologist Alvin Toffler (author of The Third Wave and Future Shock), Atkins blurred his name behind aliases such as Cybotron, Model 500 and Infiniti — all, except for Cybotron, comprised solely of himself — to release many classics of sublime Detroit techno.

And though it's often difficult (and misleading) to pick the precise genesis for any style of music, the easiest choice for techno is an Atkins release, the 1981 electro track "Clear," recorded by Atkins and Rick Davis as Cybotron. He soon left the progressively album-oriented Cybotron to begin working alone, and released his most seminal material from 1985 to 1989 as Model 500. And while fellow Detroit legends Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May were known for their erratic output during the following decade, Atkins recorded much more during the 1990s than he had during the 80s, soaking up new rhythmic elements from contemporary dance music but keeping his unerring, instantly recognizable sense of melody intact throughout.

As the electronic scene began looking back to the past to find musical innovators, Atkins was a name much discussed and -anthologized, hailed as the godfather of techno. Atkins continued recording during this time, and the period from 1985 to 1987 proved to be his most influential period. He founded his own label, Metroplex Records, in 1985 and recorded his first single as Model 500, "No UFO's." Later Metroplex singles like "Night Drive," "Interference" and "The Chase" also sold well and set the template for Detroit techno; moody and sublime machine music, inspired by the drone of automated factories and trips down the I-96 freeway late at night.

Later the Belgian R&S label began releasing stellar work by a cast of techno inheritors including New Yorker Joey Beltram and Europeans C.J. Bolland and Speedy J. By 1993, Berlin's Tresor Records had picked up the baton as well, issuing American projects by second-wave Detroit producers Underground Resistance (as X-101), Jeff Mills, Blake Baxter and Eddie Fowlkes.

Finally, in mid-1995, R&S released the debut Model 500 album, Deep Space; more importantly, the label also released Classics, a crucial compilation of Model 500's best Metroplex singles output. Another retrospective, Tresor's Infiniti Collection, traced Atkins' work as Infiniti, recorded from 1991 to 1994 for a variety of labels including Metroplex and Chicago's Radikal Fear.

Now Atkins stands as a colossus in electronic innovation. His newly re-launched Metroplex has just released its first new single in years and Model 500 is back with a bang with last year’s ‘OFI’ single on the revitalised R&S imprint with new single ‘Control’ due shortly in 2012. With Juan firmly backing in the driving seat, as ever leading from the front, what better way to celebrate the return of Model 500 than EPM’s brand new podcast…


Q&A with Juan Atkins

1. Please give us a quick walk through your selection. Why did you choose these tracks for the mix?

It was stipulated that the tracks should be EPM distributed tracks, they weren’t all ones that I had but these ones in the mix are now definitely in my box! In fact I didn’t know who a lot were as they were just listed as numbers on the files and I just picked out the ones I liked upon listening. Some like Rob Hood I new right away though.

2. Its now thirty years since your first release as Cybotron ‘Alleys of Your Mind’ came out in 1981. Can you still remember the time you first heard Electrifyin’ Mojo play it on the radio? Did you think that you would still be doing this 30 years later on?

Yeah man, it was one of those moments in life – a plateau moment! As I was in High School I had this dream of making music and getting played on Mojo, it was the confirmation of the dream coming true. I didn’t give it much more thought at the time. I was 16 or 17 when that record first came out. I liked to think that I had a long musical life ahead of me but now I think I’ll be making music until the day I die.

3. Whilst you have inspired and helped many Detroit producers to make the first steps into making electronic music who were in fact the people that inspired and mentored you?

I didn’t have any big brothers to show me things as I was the eldest. My father has been incarcerated for almost most of my life so I didn’t get any mentoring from him. I had a big crush on Donna Summer when I was young and her producer was Giorgio Moroder and I therefore really got into his music. I used to read the equipment lists on the back of his album covers and I even learned data processing which had nothing to do with sequencing music – because it was mentioned on his album. I bought the MSQ 100, which was one of the first sequencers generally available. I had a Korg MS10 and a few other bits of equipment. Then I met Rik Davis (Juan’s partner in Cybotron) who had loads of gear like a DR-55 (a Roland Drum machine). It only had 10 pre-set rhythms but it got us started.

4. Model 500 is back on a rejuvenated R&S, with the rampaging mutant funk of last year’s ‘OFI’. What plans do you currently have for Model 500?

Right now there’s a new single coming called ‘Control’. It’s finished and will probably come out in January 2012. I’m also in the process of working on more Model 500 material, which will eventually lead to an album.

5. You are often called the ‘godfather of techno’ but does being so closely entwined with the genesis of a genre actually creatively hold you back? For example, due to other people’s perceived expectations of what you should or shouldn’t play?

It doesn’t hold me back as I play what I like but there are a lot of places I haven’t been because of that title. If you have heard one of my DJ sets you would know that I don’t just play techno. I’m a music lover and play all kinds of music. But yes sometimes people do have preconceptions of what my next record should sound like.

6. As part of the Deep Space family alongside Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May you established the Music Institute club in downtown Detroit – which to this day remains shrouded in myth and legend. If you had to pick out one personal highlight from those nights, what would it be?

I guess for me it would be the nights that I played. Derrick and D-Wynn were residents and myself and Kevin played occasionally as guests so those were special moments. I would have loved to have been there when New Order came to town but I was away DJing that weekend.

7. Many of your releases have had a sci-fi or futuristic theme. Does sci-fi still play a big part in your life?

Yes for sure. There’s not a lot of good sci-fi stuff around right now but I’m still infatuated with the limitless side of space. ‘Lost in Space’, ‘Twilight Zone’ and ‘Outer Limits’ were all TV series that I grew up with. It wasn’t always about outer space but they all dealt with science fiction themes that were off the realm of reality.

8. What is the current status of Metroplex?

Right now we just re-launched. We have a new release from Kimyon from New York who is also a painting artist. The next one will be the ‘Infiniti’ remixes project. The plan is to do a joint Metroplex / Tresor release. We’ve already got confirmation from a few people like Shake (Anthony Shakir) and Thomas Fehlmann and we’re looking forward to it.

9. When the history books are written (and indeed many have been) you are widely acknowledged as the man who invented techno - a style of music that has reached all four corners of the world and given joy to millions of people. That’s gotta feel good right?

Oh yes, but with that comes a lot responsibility. A lot of times I try to think like I’m just making my first track so I can clear my mind of expectations of other people. I have to let my mind go away from all of that. I come from an era where the DJs priority was to please the crowd. Before this international DJ thing happened no one cared about the DJ. So pleasing the crowd was your job and I still carry that with me wherever I play. I still have the ideal that my primary job is to please the crowd rather than preaching techno.

10. Please give us your top 5 pre-Detroit techno classics:

1. Kraftwerk – Pocket Calculator
2. Funkadelic– One Nation Under A Groove
3. Parliament – Flashlight
4. Donna Summer – I Feel Love
5. Kraftwerk – We Are The Robots

Rude Audio are a South London based collective of vocalists, musicians, producers and engineers. Their debut album 'That Dirty Echo' sees the group exploring new sounds that transcend electronic and dance genres.

Over the past three years, members of Rude Audio have been releasing music under the moniker Unusual & Electric, garnering attention and praise from prominent DJs in British music and overseas. Championed by the likes of BBC radio DJs Nemone, Rob Da Bank and Gideon Coe, Rude Audio have seen their past musical endeavours played nationwide on stations such as Radio 1 and supported by DJs such as Laurent Garnier. They've also received praise from the likes of DJ, Drowned in Sound and Clash who went on to emphasise that one of their songs "...foams over with more ideas than most albums".

A mixture of individuals from both Newcastle and London, Rude Audio describe themselves as being rooted in the back streets of London, which is apparent in their unique fusion and approach to music. The album frequently touches on a Balearic tip with bright, 90's nostalgia while being anchored by the clean, bass-heavy elements of Dubstep and Techno. The group's mantra of 'rude' music is apparent in their unorthodox musical transitions and live instrumentation, yet the album remains loyal to its cause through hazy melodies and trippy adlibs.

Rude Audio's broad musical inspiration stems from its members' presence within the underground scene. Through regular work as engineers for other electronic acts and organising parties and raves, Rude Audio have materialised over the years to become an elusive presence within Electronic music. Progressing from such experiences, the collective now aim to re-introduce themselves having enlisted a collection of new and "old school" digital and analogue electronic equipment for a more sophisticated take on their unique sound. 'That Dirty Echo' may be the refined package of the Rude Audio sound, however the album's bold showcase of various underground styles maintains it does not lose its originality.

www.facebook.com/rudeaudio

New Rude Audio EP "That Dirty Echo" is available now from Kudos Records http://goo.gl/PlxsA

‘International Dreaming’ is a new mix from Sheffield-based downtempo electronica producers and musicians Animat.

Steeped in the tradition of Sheffield’s world-leading electronic music scene, Mark Daly and Michael Harding - aka The Only Michael – have been working together since 2004 and have released two albums and five EPs of their own material as well as devising and performing new live soundtracks to often forgotten films and remixing tracks for artists including Winter North Atlantic, Pitch Black and The Beaufort Scale.

This exclusive mix features a number of tracks from their latest album ‘Imagining Ghosts’, released on the Big Chill Label in June 2011, as well as a selection of tunes by other artists that have influenced and inspired them during the year.

http://www.animat.co.uk

Introducing a new regular show from Faciendo. They are a tribe of "musical shamans" and "mix scientists", working together to inspire, educate and spread love through the air waves. The group's primary focus is a series of mix compilation CDs, crossing many genres of electronic music, but each with the same goal: to represent the true "art" of a DJ mix, where all the pieces of the mix fit together in absolute harmony, and a truly new experience is created from the union of the tracks.

Alongside this, Faciendo Radio, their bi-weekly show, serves as a platform to showcase the latest sounds around the world, and also give the listener a glance into the past from the group’s musical history of timeless gems and forgotten classics. The format of the show may alternate each episode: from the club-oriented, where you’ll hear the house and techno they’re renowned for, to the more eclectic, airing the freshest in downtempo, disco, dubstep, drum n bass and whatever else you can name that touches the heart and mind.

For full info on the team, bookings, the radio show, forthcoming CD releases and worldwide parties, roam over to www.faciendo.com

Don-Ray is the producer behind the likes of Lady Alma as well as the abstract remixer for Fertile Ground and Wunmi; among others. He's recorded for several labels including Marauder, Madacy, UJammin, Gotsoul, and Sony Music taking them to new heights with his deep-jazz and future funk productions. He's worked with world renown producers such as Danial Lanois, was credited as having one of the Best Albums of 2005 by Freefall Radio on KUSF, and was nominated for Best
Electronic Album at the Canadian Urban Music Awards in 2001.

His music has been on albums with other notable artists including Roy Ayers, Roni Sze, DKD, Henrik Schwarz, Jerome Sydenham, Mr. V, Pal Joey, Dennis Ferrer, Glen Underground, Thievery Corporation, Mateo & Matos, Tortured Soul, and Osunlade.

On August 31st, he will be DJing alongside Bilal (whose worshippers include Erykah Badu, Q-Tip and Questlove) and Epiphany Tones at Fulton 55 in California, and dedicated this special mix here.

event info: www.fulton55.com/event/51267/