It was actually a horrible failure for its intentions, but inadvertently created the texture and the frequency that inspired a whole new generation of music-especially Detroit techno and Chicago acid house-which was a huge inspiration. The sound of the future was created by technology that had been discarded because it didn't actually fit its original intention.' Hawtin mentions the now-iconic Roland TB-303 Bass Line in particular, 'The 303 was made to practice, or get rid of, your bass player, and it sounded nothing like a real bassline. 'Back then, the scene was so small that the only people involved were those who wanted to roll up their sleeves and go down to pawn shops and find whatever instrument was there cheap enough that made some weird blips, plugging it in and trying to create something. The early Detroit techno scene was resolutely DIY, he explains. Richie Hawtin at Lowlands Festival Bart Heemskerk ' The sound of the future was created by discarded technology ' Detroit was where I really fell in love with clubbing and then got introduced and fell in love with techno and the deeper side of electronic music.'

Detroit was a big part of my teenage years. I also tuned into Detroit radio and started hearing early acid house and industrial and started going to all my concerts there. 'I was pulled to Detroit to find other possibilities, and I found incredible record shops. A much harder, darker electronic mood met his thirst for escape and electronic stimulation.

On crossing the border, the 'motor city' sound that met the teenage Hawtin was a far cry from the hit factory of Motown in the '60s. 'Being a kid who was looking for something a little bit different, or feeling a bit alternative, the amount of possibilities for record stores or clothing stores-or whatever I was looking for as a teenager-were quickly exhausted in Windsor.' He had been switched on to the potential of electronic music by his father's record collection, but quickly outgrew the local scene in his hometown, he reveals. Hawtin grew up in Windsor, a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, directly across the river from Detroit.

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