Movement Buzz: ATAXIA & SECRETS Create Music Inspired by Ford

Detroit has always been a hotbed for sound exploration and the auto industry. As robots began to replace humans at assembly plants in the 1980s, machines began to replace organic instruments in music. Growing up during this industrial shift heavily influenced music pioneers such as Juan Atkins, who created auto-inspired tracks like “Night Drive” and “Cosmic Cars,” some of the earliest sounds of techno music. Carl Craig’s 1995 album, Landcruising, included samples from a car engine in its intro. The auto industry became an underlying theme for a lot of Detroit techno, embedded both openly and subliminally in the music’s roots. What made techno unique from other variations of early electronic music was the systematic yet soulful nature of the productions. Comprised of machine-made sounds created entirely on synthesizers, the mechanical heartbeat of Detroit techno resonated with the car industry.

Paying homage to the birthplace of techno, Paxahau and Ford Motor Company recently teamed up to deliver a unique project that encapsulates the Detroit techno scene and sound. “I’m a fan of electronic music myself so this is somewhat of a passion project for me,” shares Aaron Miller, Product Communications Coordinator at Ford and part of the team behind this project.”We talked with Dana Boyette [of Paxahau] about how we could collaborate for the festival and bring our two worlds together.” Rather than just sponsoring a stage, they wanted to do something with the musicians. “We were looking for a way to connect the car industry more organically to the electronic music industry,” explained Miller. “We were talking about the idea of sampling car sounds, which is something we had done in the past with our Ford Fusion.” The artists for the past project were limited to noises of the car, such as beeps, chimes, engines turning on and off, doors closing, etc. In an effort to make the project more industrial and provide raw elements of mechanical sound, the Ford team brought the Detroit-based artists ATAXIA and SECRETS to one of their assembly plants, where they took field recordings and used the sounds to inspire brand new tracks that will be premiered at Movement.

When asked how Movement artists ATAXIA and SECRETS were chosen for the projects, Aaron Miller explains it was quite simple, “Just like Movement, we wanted to showcase artists from Detroit that are up-and-coming who are about to hit that next level.” On totally different ends of the electronic music spectrum, SECRETS and ATAXIA display the unique diversity of sound among the current Detroit dance music scene.

Catch SECRETS live Sunday from 3:00P.M.-4:00P.M. at the Moog Stage and check out ATAXIA performing Saturday from 8:00P.M.-10:00P.M. at the Silent Disco Stage. Here’s a sneak peek at their creations inspired by their experience at the Ford Assembly Plant: