“Movement is already a great festival and a successful brand,” says Craig, “it is an honor to be involved with Movement in this new capacity.”

Craig will be involved in various creative aspects of Movement including artist bookings and the festival’s brand image. He will also serve as an ambassador for the Movement festival as he travels the globe performing for throngs of electronic music enthusiasts.

“Detroit is such a wonderful music town,” Craig continued. “With Movement we have such a great opportunity to remind people from around the world and those that are right here in our own backyard that electronic music in Detroit is very powerful and that our annual festival is the best stage for showcasing the most talented artists of this musical genre.”

The annual Memorial Day Weekend festival has gone through several reincarnations since its beginning in 2000. Paxahau earned the right in 2006 to produce the festival.  Paxahau is credited with bringing financial stability to the festival, but some feel they’ve whitewashed the Detroit electronic music festival in the process.

Movement 2009, the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, kicks off this weekend, and promises to be a blast for fans of electronic music.

Last year’s attendance reached close to 80,000 over three days at Detroit’s Hart Plaza, and this year’s attendance could be even higher, with some big names like Carl Craig & The Prodigy on the lineup.

DJ Count Zero raises some interesting questions about the state of the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, though, in the hands of concert producers Paxahau:

The population of the city of Detroit, Michigan is 80% black, 12% white.  Now, granted, it would probably be unrealistic for the ratio of white to black artists at the festival to ever approach the population figures, but you’d think that the idea would be to represent the character of the city pretty closely, right?  Well, for the first few years that was the case:

Year    % Black
2000    58.73%
2001    48.68%
2002    66.18%
2003    45.57%
2004    37.70%
2005    52.69%
2006    21.43%
2007    27.71%
2008    24.47%
2009    32.88%

From 200-2005 the percentage of black performers at DEMF never dipped below 37%, and usually was above 50%.  In 2006, though, something happened.  Paxahau took over the event and the number of black performers dropped dramatically, to 21%!  Why?  That same year the percentage of Detroit area performers dropped too, from 62% in ‘05 to 33% in ‘06!

What possible excuse could Paxahau have to take what was a succesful event regardless of who was in charge and turn it into a homogenous rave party with so little Detroit flavor?

Paxahau’s “excuse” is pretty clear.

They took a event that was financially failing and turned it around by featuring more and more mainstream electronic music artists, who are less a reflection of Detroit’s make up or music than a reflection of the world of popular electronic music.

DJ Count Zero makes a valid point, though – that Movement’s success comes at the price of an event that’s less black, less a reflection of Detroit, and, arguably, less unique in the world of electronic music.

For its part, Paxahau has announced that Carl Craig will be the creative director of the Movement 2010 Festival.

What do you think? What’s more important to the Detroit Electronic Music Festival – the Detroit, or the Electronic Music?

Concert promoters Paxahau have announced dates for Movement 2009, the Detroit Electronic Music Festival – May 23rd-25th 2009, at Hart Plaza in Detroit, MI.

Last year’s attendance nearly reached 80,000 over three days on Detroit’s Hart Plaza during Memorial Day Weekend, with fans enjoying 36 hours of their favorite electronic music artists and DJs performing on five stages and was named “Festival of the Year” by the readers of URB Magazine.

The Prodigy Invades Movement 2009

The Prodigy will play the official opening party for Movement 2009 at The Fillmore in Detroit on Friday, May 22. Chuck Flask, Paxahau Resident DJ and Evan Evolution will be performing in the State Bar. The doors open at 7 p.m. Early bird tickets for this all ages show are available starting at $20 by visiting www.livenation.com. VIP tickets are available.

“Every year our goal is to build upon the success of the previous year by bringing the best available local, national and international talent to Detroit in order to create a weekend experience unlike any other in the World,” said Jason Huvaere, president of Paxahau. “Our team spends a lot of time selecting artist and DJs that will appeal to electronic music enthusiasts. This year there will be a major Detroit presence at the festival as well as some performers that rarely set foot on stage in the United States.”

An alphabetical listing of Movement 2009 Artists confirmed to date is as follows:

Adam Beyer
Adultnapper
Afrika Bambaataa
Al Ester
Anthony Attalla
Anthony Rother (Live)
Audion (Live)
Bad Boy Bill
Bassnectar
Benga
Benny Benassi
Busy P
Buzz Goree
Carl Cox
Carl Craig
Chloe Harris
Chuck Gibson a.k.a. Perception (Live)
Clark Warner
Craig Gonzalez
Damian Lazarus
Delano Smith
Dennis Ferrer
Derrick May
DJ Deeon
DJ Godfather
DJ Omega
DJ Slugo
Drumcell (Live)
Ellen Allien
Exchange Bureau (Live)
Flying Lotus (Live)
Francois K
Frankie Vega
Guy Gerber (Live)
Heidi
Innervisions Live: a critical mass (Live)
Jay Denham
Kate Simko (Live)
Kero (Live)
Kevin Reynolds (Live)
Kevin Saunderson
Krazy Baldhead (Live)
Lee Curtiss
Liz Copeland
Loco Dice vs. Luciano
Los Hermanos (Live)
Luke Hess (Live)
Lusine
Marc “MK” Kinchen & Scotty Deep (Live)
Marco Carola
Mieka du Franx
Mike Clark
Mike Huckaby
Neil Landstrumm (Live)
Nic Fanciulli
Nikola Baytala
Norm Talley
Octave One (Live)
Osunlade
Rick Wade
RJD2
Ryan Elliott
Seoul vs Linder 2×4
Seth Troxler
Shaun Reeves
Starski & Clutch
Steve Bug
The Glitch Mob (Live)
The Sight Below
Tiefschwarz
Tiga
Wighnomy Bros
Will Web
Z-Trip

Weekend Passes for Movement 2009

Discount presale Movement 2009 weekend passes are available for purchase at www.Paxahau.com for $40. The weekend passes give electronic music fans access to the festival from 12 noon to 12 midnight on May 23, 24, and 25, 2009.

One of the interesting stories to come out of this year’s Movement 08 is the story of Grandma Techno, Patricia Lay-Dorsey.

She’s not a biological grandma – though she looks the part. She’s in her 60’s, gets around in a mobility scooter – and she rocks. She’s a social activist, a blogger, an artist, she’s got an awesome tattoo – and she loves that techno music.

“They call me Grandma Techno,” she explains. “I’ve been coming to this festival every year since the beginning, and I love the music—it’s just fantastic.”

Here’s Grandma Techno’s poetic take about the Detroit Electronic Music Festival & electronic music:

Electronic music belongs to the shadowland of dreams. That’s why the Underground Stage at Movement ‘08 in Detroit was pulsing with life day and night. Lights of blue, magenta, green and red colored all the same, a rainbow of humanity joined by the thumping bass beat of our hearts.

On her blog, she wrote about her experiences at Movement 07:

If you’re a fan of electronic music you’ll know what I mean when I say these DJs mix it up like magicians behind the decks. But if you don’t know the difference between house and techno, or to be more specific, how slamming, dark, minimal, futuristic, soulful, funky, hooky and ambient electronic music sounds, just trust me–it’s ALL great to dance to. With that pounding bass beat, you pretty much trance out, at least I do.

And there was something else that made me trance out yesterday, and that was the LOVE that these thousands of young folks poured out on this white-haired, scooter-riding woman they call “Grandma.” It was bizarre! I was a mini-celebrity. Many of them remembered me from last year. Said they’d danced with me, had taken pictures of me, admired me, wanted to be like me when they got to be grannies, etc. One fellow even said, “You’re the coolest chick here!”

So more pictures were taken, most with starry-eyed boys and girls with their arms around me. I was showered with gifts–3 bracelets, 1 necklace, 1 t-shirt, 1 authentic-dj-gear.com waterproof bag, untold numbers of kisses, hugs and I-love-you’s. Every time I needed to get in or out of my favorite of the five stages–the always crowded tented area called the Beatport stage–there were big strong fellows ready to clear my way. It was like the parting of the Red Sea!

Grandma Techno also took some fantastic photos of the event:

30 years from now, I hope to be as cool as Grandma Techno!

Here’s a roundup of some of the coolest images from Movement ‘08, the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.

If you’ve posted images from DEMF, add a post in the comments!

Images: TheBeej, Miss Lauralee, rockmusicreview, seekoh, c2k2e

Detroit’s Freep.com, says that Movement 08 took the Detroit Electronic Music Festival mainstream:

Eight years into Detroit’s electronic-music festival tradition, the event seems to have secured its future. At Hart Plaza this weekend, the fest audience was younger than ever, packed with teens and early twentysomethings who seemed eager to stamp their own mark on the riverfront ritual.

From its launch at noon Saturday through Monday night’s headlining closing by Speedy J, Movement’s five stages were home to new adventures in sound, as an array of first-time fest performers nudged the fest onto new ground. This was the year Movement went mainstream, with flashy, trendy club music standing out in boldface among the more eloquent, classic styles that once dominated the event.

For purists, it wasn’t necessarily a welcome development. Not all was reflective and poignant, not everything transcendent. The musical romance of previous fests was often supplanted by a fist-pumping party spirit. Acts such as Moby, Benny Benassi and Girl Talk indulged their audiences with accessible, hook-laden sets, gesturing and cavorting onstage like rock stars.

No booking better symbolized the new Movement than Moby, the New York artist who has enjoyed electronic music’s most successful pop crossover career. Saturday night, he packed the Hart Plaza bowl with an animated set that shored up his old-school DJ credentials.

Movement officials said about 53,000 people had passed through the gates by Sunday night — in two days eclipsing the 2007 three-day total of 43,337. Monday’s attendance was 22,397, pushing the weekend’s total to more than 75,000.

“It was a musical experiment, and the response was what we were hoping for,” fest director Jason Huvaere said Monday afternoon. “What happened was, without question, a really defining moment. It was a risk, and what we’ve seen over the past three days is a success for the event and the performers.”

It was the biggest DEMF ever – but does bigger and more mainstream mean better?

Moby is making his Movement debut at this weekend’s Detroit Electronic Music Festival.

Here are a few of the highlights:

What goes into putting together a live show versus a DJ set?

When I DJ, it’s just me playing my favorite records by other people. One of the things I love about DJing is the impromptu spontaneity of it. Every time I DJ it’s quite different. You establish this symbiotic relationship with the audience, where they’re responding to you and you’re responding to them, and you never know what your next record is going to be. It could be this fantastic moment where everyone in the crowd throws hands in the air or it could be a trainwreck where everyone decides to go to the bar and ignore what you’re doing.

What do you spin?

It all depends. I mean, sometimes I’ll play brand new electro tracks, sometimes I’ll play old house and techno, sometimes I’ll break out some old hip-hop records, sometimes its Guns N’ Roses and Pulp. It depends on where I am, and what seems to be appropriate and/or inappropriate.

Do you DJ with vinyl?

I used to, but I stopped playing vinyl about a year ago because I was traveling too much, and traveling with vinyl — it’s just really heavy. If you have two big flight cases filled with vinyl it weighs about 75 pounds, so running through an airport with two big flight cases of vinyl logistically was just a pain in the (behind). So now, like most of the DJs I know, I’m DJing with CDs, and the great thing about that is they weigh nothing, you can carry all your music with you and if you lose something you can burn it again off your laptop.

This is your first appearance at Movement. Has this festival been on your radar?

Oh yeah, I’ve known about it for years. The first time I went to Detroit was in 1991 or 1992, and I believe the first time I came to Detroit I played at St. Andrews with the Prodigy and Richie Hawtin. So I’ve been coming to Detroit regularly for almost 18 years, and, it goes without saying that Detroit is definitely the American center for electronic music, so it makes perfect sense to have DEMF there. Also, without the originators — Juan Atkins and Carl Craig and Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May — electronic music today would probably look very different. It’s very safe to say they’re the ones who started it.

Were they an influence on you?

Oh yeah, in the late ’80s I would basically buy any electronic record that had a 4/4 kick to it. So whether it was house music from Chicago or the early Transmat records, it was very inspiring. A lot of the music that came out of Detroit in the late ’80s and early ’90s was more thoughtful, intellectual dance music. Something like a record by the Suburban Knights, it was a great record to listen to, but it was not exactly a floor filler that you could play at 2 o’clock in the morning. Then there were the crossovers, like “Strings of Life” that ended up being such a huge dance hit, but such an unlikely dance hit, because it doesn’t even really become a dance song until about a minute and a half into it. So it was interesting when tracks like that would cross over.

Have you become friends with any of those Detroit originals?

I’ve known them for years. I’ve toured with all of them at this point. I toured with Richie Hawtin and the Plus 8 sound system, Dan Bell, Derrick May, and I remember DJing with Carl Craig in ‘90 or ‘91. Kevin Saunderson and I, we had the same manager for a long time in the early ’90s, and Juan Atkins, I toured with him in ‘96. I haven’t actually seen or talked to any of them in probably a year or more, but I run into them all in the most random places. You’ll find yourself in Stuttgart at 5 o’ clock in the morning at a truck stop, and you’re buying a magazine and a coffee and there’s Derrick May.

Here’s a round-up of info for Movement 08: the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, May 24-26, 2008:

• Movement 08 Schedule (pdf)
• Movement 08 Hart Plaza Map
• Movement 08 MySpace page
• Official Movement 08 blog
• Real Detroit Weekly coverage
• Detroit info
• Official afterparties
• Movement 08 afterparty list (official and unofficial)
• Movement 08 coverage at Synthopia
• Movement 08 video previews

See the Official Movement 08 blog for updated info!

Here are the official promo videos for Movement 2008 – the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.

Masters of House
A TRIBUTE TO KEN COLLIER WITH THE HELP OF SEVERAL OF DETROITS FINEST HOUSE DJ’s AND ENTHUSIASTS

This Friday May 23rd from 9p.m. until 4a.m. at Level 10 Nigthclub( Woodbridge and McDougall)

RSVP or tickets available by visiting:
www.mastersofhouse2008.com

Movement 07, the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, is steaming up Detroit’s Hart Plaza, despite rain and the admission charge.

“It was a slow start,” says Jason Huvaere, president of Paxahau Promotions Group, which produced this year’s festival. “But after 4 p.m., people never stopped coming in.”

He said he’d grade Saturday a “B+” and by 9 p.m. Sunday, he was giving the second day an “A.”

“The weather finally broke, the mood is awesome and everyone’s having a good time,” said Huvaere.

Performers have ranged from Monolake, above, to ambient artist Robert Rich.

Rich said he usually turns down invitations to play outdoor festivals like Movement. But his set on Sunday was met with whoops and hollers, and prompted calls for an encore he couldn’t play because of time restraints.

“I’m used to playing in much quieter settings,” says Rich, who prefers small auditoriums and planetariums. “But there’s a time and place for everything, and it was fun getting out here and rocking out a little bit.”

Even as the rain came down, though, fans continued to move and gyrate in front of the stage.

Lauren Theil, 18, of Dublin, Ohio, sees the festival as a tradition that must, no matter what, continue. “This festival helps to keep this city alive,” she said.

via Detroit News

Photos: TheBeej, Plaubel Makina, Stirhouse, shawnvanbrunt

We’re never quite sure what the f*** they’re going to call the Detroit Electronic Music Festival year to year. It’s DEMF one year, Fuse-in the next, then it’s Movement…. For attendees, it’s just the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.

Other 2007 special performances include German producers Booka Shade, A Guy Called Gerald, Hardfloor, Misstress Barbara, Monolake and Richie Hawtin.

Moodymann (Kenny Dixon Jr.) is a Detroit techno/house artist known for his innovative use of reworked riffs, samples and grooves taken from the City’s historically influential jazz, soul, funk and disco scene. Rarely appearing live, his headlining performance at the festival is the first show in support of his upcoming studio album and will include a full stage show with a band.

Juan Atkins, who is widely regarded as the godfather of Techno, began in the 1980s recording what stands as perhaps the most influential body of work within the genre. Model 500 will headline the main stage on Sunday at the festival, highlighting the continuing influence of his music on a global scale.

Jeff Mills is a planetary superstar of techno, an unwearied hero of mega-events and an ace of the three-deck mix; his musical touch has been a force on this city’s dance scene for over 20 years. Jeff returns to Detroit to headline the festival with a main stage closing performance on Monday night.

Other Movement ‘07 artists:

• A Guy Called Gerald – live
• Abe Duque & Blake Baxter – live
• Baby Ford & Zip
• Booka Shade – live – First time in Detroit
• Brian Sanhaji – live
• Butane – live
• Christian Smith
• Claude VonStroke
• Damian Lazarus
• D. Diggler- live – First time in Detroit
• Different World (Claude Young & Takasi Nakajima) – live
• Digitaline – live – First time in Detroit
• Gui Borrato – live – First time in Detroit
• Guido Schneider – live – First time in Detroit
• Hardfloor – live – First time in Detroit
• Heidi
• Jeff Mills
• Kate Simko – live
• King Britt
• Mirko // Lazy Fat People
• Loco Dice
• Losoul – live – First time in Detroit
• Luciano
• Marco Carola
• Mathew Jonson – live
• Michael Mayer
• Misstress Barbara
• Model 500 – live featuring Juan Atkins
• Monolake – live
• Moodymann – live featuring Pitch Black City
• Octave One featuring Random Noise Generation – live
• Onur Ozer – live – First time in Detroit
• Paco Osuna – First time in Detroit
• Pepo Lanzoni
• Pole – live
• Rhythm & Sound – 6 hour dj/live with vocalists
• Richie Hawtin
• Robert Rich – live
• Sassmouth
• Scan 7 – live
• Steve Bug
• Anthony Shake Shakir
• Stacey Pullen
• Vladislav Delay – live

Movement, Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival, is the largest electronic music festival in the world. The event integrates musical and visual artistry, creativity, diversity and state-of-the-art technology, as more than 70 world-renowned acts perform on multiple stages for over one million fans. Held each year in the birthplace of Techno Music, Movement is the place to be seen on Memorial Day Weekend. The best DJs spin the best beats for a musical bender like none other and it’s all free.

Movement 04 will offer the world three days of the best techno talent the world and Detroit has to offer. As in years past, this confluence of musicians and DJ’s will come together under the open skies of Hart Plaza to salute the music in its very birthplace and deliver a truly one-of-a-kind musical/life experience to over a million fans.

Movement 04 Performers:

• Aardvark
• Alden Tyrell live
• Amp Fiddler live
• Barbara Preisinger
• Biological Live
• Camp Amp DJs
• Claude Young
• Cloud 9
• Danny Krivit
• Derek Plaslaiko
• Kenny Larkin
• Kevin Reynolds
• Kevin Saunderson
• Language
• Legowelt
• Louis Haiman
• Madlib and PBW ft Jay Dee
• Malik Alston Painted Pictures
• Marques Wyatt
• McKay
• DJ Cosmo
• DJ Genesis live
• DJ Nova
• Dubphonics
• Duplex Live
• Ellen Allien
• Fat Freddy’s Drop
• Francois K
• Garth Trinidad
• Goldfinger (AML)
• Greg Mudge
• Groove Junkies
• Heiroglyphic being
• Highfish
• Jeannie Hopper
• Joris Voorn live
• Kai Alce
• Kelvin Larkin
• Mike Geiger
• Mike Grant
• Mike Huckaby
• Novamen Live dutch
• Osunlade Live
• Dame
• Recloose
• Red Nose Distrikt
• Reel People
• Remy
• Rockid (DMC Champion)
• Rolando
• Ron Trent
• sean deason
• Shortround
• Stacey Pullen
• Tortured Soul Live
• Waajeed