Castles In the Sand (Instrumental) - Stevie Wonder
Detroit, Michigan - Ronnie Love
Any Way You Wanta - Harvey
You Killed the Love - Betty Lavett
Get Read (Instrumental) - The Temptations
Metallurgency - Rimarkable
Welcome 2 My House - LADYMONIX
Misty City - 3 Chairs
Be Free (Mike Huckaby Edit) - Jovonn
truckload of boats - couch
Novelty/Entropy - batterie:acid
Catadrone - Gravitar
Pleasant Orbitings - Füxa
Bluebird - Tommy Flanagan & Kenny Burrell
Star Eyes - Barry Harris
Dear John C. - Elvin Jones
5021 - Pepper Adams Quintet
Wood Pile - Neu Blume
Brick James - Boldy James & Antt Beatz
signal - wetdogg
Nubian Lady - Yusef Lateef
Find A Way - Piranahahead & Diviniti
Back To Detroit - Rick Wade
Reprise - Whodat & Viola Klein
A Higher Movement - DJ Bone
Stringing Me Along - Scan 7
Sfire 6 - Sfire
Can We Pretend - Trus'Me, Amp Fiddler, Kenny 'Mac' Martin
Art Form - Robert Hood
Necessary - Disruptive Pattern Material
North Hex (Patrick Russell Reshape) - Erika
Shot - Cathouse
Horse - Majesty Crush
Judy Garland - Naming Mary
Pawky - Dorothy Ashby
Underground - Cincecyde
Car Sick - Algebra Mothers
Cool Ghoul - 3-D Invisibles
Schematix - K1
Rituals are symbolic acts. They represent, and pass on, the values and orders on which a community is based. They bring forth a community without communication; today, however, communication without community prevails.
- Byung Chul Han, The Disappearance of Rituals
The dank basement is dark. You were explicitly instructed to enter from the back alley to avoid the attention of authorities. From the outside, it could be an ordinary, closed building at Midnight. But inside, nothing could be further from the case.
The gutted storage space is filled to the brim with anonymous dancers, convulsing and contorting their bodies with deadly serious urgency. Surrounding the four corners of the room are mountainous speakers courtesy of Jim Gibbons AVS. They emit slinky, dubby, crushing techno. Total sensory immersion. The ritual is underway.
When I arrive at this proper Detroit afters affair, local stalwart Tammy Lakkis, who has played this space numerous times before with the Sleep Olympics crew, is hammering the underground room with thundering techno rippers. One of the city’s most versatile, there isn't a space Lakkis can’t rock. An ideal way to open things up.
Next up, out-of-town guest Paul Fleetwood begin a long-awaited return to Detroit set. An underground veteran from Pittsburgh, Fleetwood flexed his chops over a 3-hour marathon of minimal, dub, industrial, and other psychedelic assortments. “He sounds like Detroit,” someone commented. And indeed, he fit right in. We hope he comes back soon.
Finishing the night off to great anticipation was Mike Servito. The house junky had cut his teeth in Detroit under the tutelage of Mike Huckaby and found his voice in New York City as a resident of The Bunker. Nowadays, his sets at Interdimensional Transmissions’ No Way Back are the stuff of legend. Now he was here, playing a proper after-hours spot.
Servito’s fast hands set to work, launching into a pulverizing set of scorched, jacking acid. The sound of 909s on fire completed the ritual as the crowd hit on collective trance, singularity. “Community without the need to communicate,” Byung Chul-Han had once said. Touching from a distance. Union through sound. We need more rituals if we are to survive.
Centauri - Asteroid Blues
I Look For You in Everyone - Hall Pass
Living Memory - Little Fly
The Theory - Underground Resistance
Journey - Never On Sunday
Covert Action - Urban Tribe
Riod (Alternative Version) - Borderland
Darkside (Vocal Mix) - Audiotech
Early Warning Starfield (Donato Dozzy Remix) - Erika
Panacea (Rolando Remix) - John Beltran
Shakea Body (Terrence Dixon Remix) - Trus'me
Shake It Baby - Mr. Dé
Return of Voices - Erik Travis
DECEMBER 31ST, 2024
This is my third time covering an Interdimensional Transmissions party for Motormouth, and, considering my unwavering allegiance to them and their vision, I doubt it will be my last. With the veteran Detroit institution’s commitment to local roots, underground rave philosophy, immersive venue transformations, and top-notch sound installation, it's no surprise they’ve earned something of a cult following (that I am unashamedly part of) over their three-decade career. That said, upon seeing their stacked New Year’s Eve lineup at Marble Bar, my plans were immediately solidified. What follows is a hazy recount of my blissed-out final night of 2024, and life-affirming first morning of 2025….
Arriving for doors is necessary. I need to settle into the space before the madness and delirium take hold. Plus, there’s no missing a Scott Zacharias I.T. set. Arguably Detroit’s deepest crate digger, Scott’s sets are eclectic and vibey, calling on a diverse range of genres and periods, serving a psychedelic, auditory brew that charges the rest of the night with a certain wonky and drifting affect. Dub, soul, weirdo disco, and kraut jams abound; the boy delivered once again in spades.
Next up, Erika kicked off her set on the patio, which was insulated from the flurries of snow and icy rain swirling just beyond the DJ booth. The I.T. cofounder hit the now-thickening crowd with a heavy onslaught of hallucinatory, freak-strain techno, that mutated into bleeding-edge dubstep that got the legs working and brain scrambling to catch up.
Next was a special treat: Detroit deep house maestro and Sound Signature affiliate Marcellus Pittman was back in town for the party. Pittman’s return boded extremely well and, back on the inside, he was the ideal selector for The Transition from ‘24 into ‘25. A master of precise mixing, his soulful house, classic disco gems, and slinky techno cuts crossed into legitimately psychedelic territory. It was blissful track after blissful track. Midnight came, and though there were cheers and celebrations, they were short-lived, as we focused right back in on the euphoric mixes from this old Detroit sage.
Now it was 2:30 AM. The old year was dying, fading from memory, and the new one, full of potential and promise, was being born as Detroit electro expert BMG and Miami Bass wizard Danny Daze took to the booth outside…
While Detroit’s connection with Chicago and Berlin is a well-established, common fact, the D’s meaningful ties to Miami are often glossed over. Speaking on this, BMG stated, There’s a strong connection between the music of the 2 cities, they’re actually very intertwined. I saw the pan-Caribbean rhythms melt in a scene that equally embraced goth, raving, and highly experimental music where they were communing with aliens. And it was this energy of dancing beyond the boundaries of convention, locale, this solar system, that the pair brought for their highly anticipated back-to-back. Psychedelic, pulsating atmospheres collided with booty bass ragers for hours into the early morning. At a certain point around 5 AM, Danny went solo and, connecting back to BMG’s mention of goth, played dark classics “Tear You Apart” by She Past Away, “Beautiful People” by Marilyn Manson, and an insane mash-up of NiN’s “Closer” and 50 Cent’s “In Da Club”. Dancers’ faces told the story of their set: jaws dropped, eyes widened, and expressions of awe flashed. At some point, I gave in to the fatigue and found myself heading home, the party still healthily raging until who knows what ungodly hour…
I.T.’s New Year's bash set a very high bar for 2025. In a league of its own, the only ones able to top what I saw that night would be the Interdimensional crew themselves. Lucky for us, that seems a promising possibility, as we anxiously await their Anthony “Shake” Shakir benefit party at the beginning of March and their utterly massive Return to the Source weekender in May. Until next time, I’ll fondly reminisce on nights under the parachutes of an Interdimensional Transmissions transformed warehouse.
Seagulls - Will Sessions
Possession - Little Ann
Love You Madly - The Fantastic Four
Running From Love (Version 2 / Strings) - Marvin Gaye
Expo 2000 (UR Thought 3 Mix) - Kraftwerk
Le Soleil est pres de moi (Dopplereffekt Remix) - Air
Cosmic Raindance - Cybotron
Wireless Internet - Arpanet
Helpless - Kim Weston
Party People Throwdown - The Boone Brothers
Whatupdoe [The 'D'] (Malik Alston's Linwood Remix) - Piranhahead
January - Kenny Dixon Jr.
Radio Man - Buckshot98
HOT ROD BABY - ty
Nod if You Know - Day Residue
Journey of the Dragons - Galaxy 2 Galaxy
LISTEN Interstellar Feelings - Jeff Mills UFOs - The Undisputed Truth Detroit City Cats - Costa & Chyps Where Am I? - Wendell Harrison P...
