KENNY LARKIN

With the deluge of techno artists from all over the world making headlines, it's easy (although very wrong) to forget that techno was created in Detroit, Michigan by African-American visionaries like Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins and Derrick May. From that influential tradition stems the freshest new techno face in the U.S.A.: KENNY LARKIN. Kenny Larkin began his music career in 1990 after serving two years in the U.S. Air Force, where he was repairing computers. Hanging out at local Detroit clubs like The Music Institute and The Shelter, he soon hooked up with Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva and started to record for their Plus 8 label. Kenny also founded his own imprint Art Of Dance and released records under a variety of monikers, including Dark Comedy, Pod and Yennek. Metaphor, released in February 1995, is Kenny's second full-length album, and a most convincing proof of the fact that, unlike anybody else, he kicks up some real soul in his techno. The album was preceded on November 28th by the single Catatonic, on which four mixes (two by the artist himself, one by Carl Craig and one by Stacey Pullen) competed for the most vivid interpretation of the track. All in all, Metaphor is a high class Detroit package marked by variety and rhythmic enchantment; it's melodic, emotive and, like so much great U.S. techno, almost jazz-like in places. "This is electronic soul music, full of human feeling and warmth", wrote Mixmag Monthly, while i-D commented: "a juxtaposition of polished classic Detroit and quirky jazz-inspired innovation". At times very minimal and ambient, other times well informed by house, Kenny's warm dance beats hit in just the right places at just the right time. "A lot of styles of music come out in my moods: jazz, house, it depends on how I'm feeling", Kenny muses. "A lot of my music is improvised. I just start playing chords and get emotions off that, and then go. All this 180 BPM shit is not how techno was ! envisioned to be. People like the early Detroit guys and Kraftwerk were showing people their emotions through their music. That's what I'm doing as well."

KENNY LARKIN DISCOGRAPHY

Kenny Larkin - We Shall Overcome (Plus 8, 1990)

Kenny Larkin - Integration EP (Plus 8, 1991)

Yennek - Serena X EP (Buzz, 1992)

Dark Comedy - War Of The Worlds (Art Of Dance, 1992)

Pod - Vanguard EP (Buzz, 1993)

Kenny Larkin - Azimuth (Warp, 1994)

Kenny Larkin - Maritime on Artificial Intelligence II (Warp, 1994)

Kenny Larkin - Catatonic (R & S, 1994)

Kenny Larkin - Metaphor (R & S, 1995)

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