Learning From The Past And Morphing Into The Digital Era

Detroit techno auteur Stacey Pullen is experiencing a rebirth. He has established a credible label brand, Blackflag Recordings. He has a new compilation package, Balance 28. And the DJ/producer is returning to Australia for a high-profile tour — beginning with Sydney's Electric Gardens Festival.

Pullen signed to the Virgin Records imprint Science, home to UK junglist Photek, in the early noughties — becoming the first Detroit techno identity to score such a major deal since Kevin Saunderson with Inner City. He aired the avant-garde album Todayisthetomorrowyouwerepromisedyesterday, traversing techno, house, breakbeat, ambient, jazz and... opera. Alas, the label didn't know what to do with him. Pullen recently told XLR8R that the decade-long union "was like a bad marriage".

"I'm competing with [The] Chemical Brothers, I'm competing with Janet Jackson, Lenny Kravitz, Spice Girls..."

"I'm competing with [The] Chemical Brothers, I'm competing with Janet Jackson, Lenny Kravitz, Spice Girls — all those guys and girls were on Virgin," Pullen says today from Mexico. "So here I am, this little young black kid from Detroit, having to compete with those bigger artists... The bottom line is, if you don't sell records in the hundreds of thousands, especially then for a major record label, then they're pretty much gonna say, 'Ok, thank you, but it's time to move on.'" Pullen found himself in contractual limbo, prohibited from circulating music under his own name — even via Black Flag. "They have the power to put things on hold for forever," he laughs. "The key words in the contract, especially [with] majors, are 'in perpetuity'." He isn't regretful. "It was a great learning experience. It actually made me a little stronger, a little bit more independent, with what I've been doing and who I am as a person and an artist, anyway."

Pullen, his father associated with the R&B group The Capitols, emerged as a member of Detroit techno's 'Second Wave' alongside Carl Craig. He was Derrick May's charismatic protege, presenting his conceptual debut (The Theory Of) Silent Phase on Transmat. Pullen created his own Afro-futurism, his striking image that of a techno bohemian. 

Pullen is unsure about further LPs. He feels that in the digital era the typical consumer doesn't have the attention span for an already "challenging" electronic album — and contemporary music is ephemeral. "It's really defeating for an artist to be doing things from his heart and not really being able to reap the benefits of it because its shelf life is much shorter than what it was years ago." Ironically, "technology" is inspiring him more than other music. "Detroit techno has always been about innovation and the future."

Pullen is the latest DJ to mix a volume in the cult Balance series. His eclectic set recalls 1996's art project DJ-Kicks. Pullen sought to again "showcase some tracks that I don't really get a chance to play on a nightly basis". Yet the music is "current". No purist, Pullen even has the electro Fake Blood. "Being able to understand the different genres of music, and staying true to who you are as a DJ, is really important now."

Beyond DJing, Pullen's focus is his "flourishing" Black Flag stable. The Detroit ambassador has turned "mentor" to his international signings. "Everybody wants to still have that name of 'Detroit' linked to them," he says. "Just the word itself is still powerful and prolific. I'm still happy to be here and to keep being able to pass on and continue the tradition of Detroit."