Split
Order-Nr.: DE-081 |
12inch / Dark Entries Records / 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgDnx7Ac9Y4
Dark Entries is excited to reissue a split EP of rare and out of
print Detroit Electro jams from Nu Sound II Crew and Magnus II. Both
were projects of mastermind Sam Anderson aka DJ Maestro. Growing up on
the westside of Detroit, Maestro joined the Marine Corps in 1979 and was
turned on to electronic music. One of his fellow Marines was a DJ from
Brooklyn who schooled Maestro on how to mix records, blending dance
songs seamlessly. While stationed on base in California, he set up a DJ
crew called Nu Sounds and perfected his technical skills. He returned
to Detroit in 1984 and auditioned for the Electrifying Mojo on WJLB. It
was there that he met the Godfather of Techno, Juan Atkins, who
introduced him to emerging new sounds of dance & party music. Juan
showed him how to make and record music using a Roland 808 and 909, Linn
Drum and a Boss DR-55 drum machine.
In 1986 Maestro created a new alias for himself, Nu Sound II Crew, by
adding a roman numeral II to his former DJ crew name. That year he
self-released his first 12″ single “The Speed Of Light” on Sound Wave
Records. Only 500 copies were made and distributed by Juan Atkins’
Metroplex Records. Influenced by Kraftwerk and Cybotron, Nu Sound II
Crew created fresh, fast, dark electro beats with tough drum machines
and lyrics about traveling through outer space. A second single was
released that same year, “1001 Beats”, a slower, deep and heavy vocoder
track with guitar by Jerome Blackwell that riffs the Batman Theme during
the break. By the late 1980s, Maestro was using different alias such as
Sam and Dave, Zetta, and Magnus II to make it look like a lot of
artists were on his new label Steppin’ Forward Records. Magnus II was
named after guitarist Jeff Magnus who plays on the sole 12″ single from
the project “Roctronic/Space Age” released in 1993. For this EP reissue,
all 3 original mixes of “Space Age” are included: LP Version, Dub, and
Remix. “Space Age” blends EBM rhythms with tough drum machine beats to
create an electro hybrid somewhere between Belgium and Detroit.
