Deforrest Brown Jr. is an ex-American theorist, journalist and curator. He produces audio and extended media as “Speaker Music” and is a representative of the “Make Techno Black Again” campaign. On June the 15th 2020 He released the album “Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry” on the label Planet Mu. His debut book, “Assembling a Black Counter Culture: Primary Information 2021” is a general history of techno and adjacent electronic music with a focus on black experiences in industrialised labour systems, and explores the on the ground development of a unique American art form.

Deforrest talks about the history of techno and the events leading up to its inception. From slavery and the migration of black people from the south to the recently industrialised city of Detroit, to the race riots taking place after Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. Deforrest explains these factors influenced the sound of Detroit Techno and is akin to folk music. He goes on to explain the appropriation of Techno in Europe. I disagree with this idea that techno has been appropriated throughout Europe as Juan Atkins, one of the founding fathers has admitted one of his main influences is Kraftwerk, the German band who pioneered electronic music. So the notion that Detroit Techno hasn’t been influenced or has any roots in European to begin with is false considering the Detroit sound may not be the same without the influence of Kraftwerk.