Derrick May

One of the original Detroit scene (alongside Carl Craig, Kevin Saunderson and Juan Atkins) Derrick is not only one of the world's best regarded techno DJs and producers - he also has a claim to be the inventor of the genre. Combining the spare electro disco of his favourites Yello and Kraftwerk with the boomy house sound of the Detroit party scene, May created an album, "Strings of Life" (1987) which introduced techno to mainstream and European audiences.

Derrick has been running parties since he was in high school in the early 80s and began a pioneering shift towards what he then termed 'conceptual disco', which he was instrumental in hardening up and exporting to a global market.

May is often termed "the Miles Davis of techno" thanks to the delicate production values and broad appeal of his techno tracks, which combine comparatively easygoing rolling basslines (almost like house music) with the characteristic boom of the world's best dance music.

What to expect depends on the context. May often plays retrospectives of the entire genre, or at more underground events he'll spin entirely mindblowing sets of new, electro-pumping minimal techno.

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