Les Enfants Brillants presents Juan Atkins
By Kit Macdonald
Sometimes it's important to step back and appreciate the fact that the people who invented techno - a development and a moment in time that by now probably feel like part of the ancient past to the majority of clubbers - are still out there touring, and still putting in performances that are as vital as ever. So it is with the apparently ageless Juan Atkins (he is in fact "only" 61 and has clearly taken care of himself over the years), who in 1988 was one of the "Detroit Six" along with Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Eddie Fowlkes, Blake Baxter and Santonio Echols. These artists and their repetitive, machine-driven sound sparked worldwide interest via the compilation Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit, and the rest is knocking on for four decades of musical history.
Atkins, May and Saunderson - The Belleville Three - emerged as the most important and prominent of the six, and seeing Atkins now is never less than a joyful techno history lesson. Also very much worth catching at Les Enfants will be support DJ Lumiere, the long-established Argentinian-in-Barcelona who co-founded the label and brand Cymatix with Anah.