Drexciya

For the Ghanaian short documentary, see Drexciya (film).

For the German - Burkinabe short film, see Drexciya (2012) (film).

Drexciya was an American electronic music duo from Detroit, Michigan, consisting of James Stinson (1969 - 2002) and Gerald Donald.

History

The majority of Drexciya's releases were in the style of dance-floor-oriented Electro, punctuated with elements of retro, 1980s Detroit Techno, with occasional excursions into the Ambient and Industrial genres. Tracks were mostly centered around the TR-808 drum machine.

Drexciya, which eschewed media attention and its attendant focus on personality, developed an afrofuturist myth. The group revealed in the sleeve notes to their 1997 album The Quest that "Drexciya" was an underwater country populated by the unborn children of pregnant African women who were thrown off of slave ships; the babies had adapted to breathe underwater in their mother's wombs. The myth was built partly on Paul Gilroy's The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (1993), according to Kodwo Eshun.

Reports of Drexciya's disbanding in 1997 were contradicted two years later when a new Drexciya track appeared on the Underground Resistance compilation Interstellar Fugitives, followed by three more Drexciya albums.

Discography

Albums

• The Quest (1997), Submerge
• Neptune's Lair (1999), Tresor
• Harnessed the Storm (2002), Tresor
• Grava 4 (2002), Clone

EPs and singles

• "Deep Sea Dweller" (1992), Shockwave Records
• "Drexciya 2: Bubble Metropolis" (1993), Underground Resistance
• "Aquatic Invasion" (1994), Underground Resistance
• "Drexciya 3: Molecular Enhancement" (1994), Rephlex, Submerge
• "Drexciya 4: The Unknown Aquazone" (1994), Submerge
• The Journey Home (1995), Warp Records
• "The Return Of Drexciya" (1996), Underground Resistance
• "Uncharted" (1997), Somewhere In Detroit
• "Fusion Flats" (2000), Tresor
• "Hydro Doorways" (2000), Tresor
• "Digital Tsunami" (2001), Tresor
• "Drexciyan R.E.S.T. Principle" (2002), Clone

Compilations

• The Quest (1997), Submerge
• Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller I (2011), Clone
• Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller II (2012), Clone
• Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller III (2013), Clone
• Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller IV (2013), Clone

References

• More Brilliant Than The Sun: Adventures In Sonic Fiction by Kodwo Eshun, pp. 06[083] - 06[085] (Quartet Books, London, 1998)

External links

• Drexciya discography at Discogs.
• Artist page with extensive discography at Global Darkness.
• The Drexciya Research Lab blog.