Beats Of Burden

Detroit's Octave One, who have jokingly proclaimed themselves ”The Rolling Stones Of Techno”, finally toured Australia in 2011 – twice. This month they're back with their live analogue show of alt.EDM. On their inaugural trek, brothers Lawrence and Lenny Burden performed exclusively at a sold-out party held in tandem with the Sydney Festival. “It was great!” Lenny enthuses, remembering the gig as “more of a concert than a dance party.”

O1 belong to that fabled legacy of Detroit techno. Indeed, Lawrence, the oldest of five brothers, was DJing in the '80s. In 1989 he teamed with siblings Lenny and Lynell, singer Lisa Newberry, and engineer Anthony “Shake” Shakir to cut the classic I Believe. The song appeared on the influential compilation Techno 2: The Next Generation. The Burdens' childhood music lessons at mum's insistence had paid off. While, like Underground Resistance, O1 were identified with Detroit techno's 'Second Wave', I Believe was arguably the first tech-house track. Soon after, the Burdens' launched their own label, 430 West. They'd introduce a second handle, Random Noise Generation. And they brought in the youngest Burdens, Lance and Lorne. In 2000 O1 unleashed the mega crossover anthem Black Water, which, along with DJ Rolando's Jaguar, revived Detroit techno. Kevin Saunderson's then wife Ann sang on it. Late last year they presented the 20th anniversary comp Revisited: Here, There, And Beyond, their back catalogue remixed by such techno illuminati as Aril Brikha – and the hip Sandwell District.

Today Lawrence and Lenny make up Octave One's core. “The other three have regular lives,” Lenny reveals. “Sometimes you definitely look at 'em envious [laughs]… For them, music is still a hobby, and they can use it as a release. We make music as a release, but we also are so involved in the business, sometimes it's hard to get that joy – we have to step back to get that joy out of making music the way we used to, when we were making music just for the sake of making music.”

Lenny, Lawrence, Lorne and their parents are now based in Atlanta, the city dubbed 'Hotlanta' during the '90s' urban boom (think: TLC, OutKast, Goodie Mob). “We didn't really come down here for the musical culture, we just actually came down here to kinda shake the life up a bit,” Lenny says, nonetheless admitting that they've worked with an Arrested Development vocalist. The others remain in Detroit. Coincidentally, all five Burdens recently bunkered down in the Motor City for the first time in 10 years to prepare another O1 album. They'll be testing this material, as well as airing October's single New Life, in Oz.

Detroit techno goes in and out of fashion, yet it's never been out of style. But are younger listeners discovering the music? “Positively, especially with us,” Lenny responds. Their crowd are in their early 20s. “People in our age group are at home and have families.” That a young generation is embracing Detroit techno, and the social media-savvy O1, is welcome news. After all, kids aren't being exposed to it through mainstream channels. It also lessens the possibility of Detroit techno becoming a stagnantly 'retro' subculture, like '80s New Wave pop. O1 constantly convert fans with their “funky” live music. ”We mix our live sets with new tracks, and we also mix our live sets with a lotta classic tracks – and for them the classic tracks are new!”

One may argue that America's EDM craze has delivered few, if any, benefits to the music's (African-American) originators. Lenny concurs. “To be honest, all it does is make the general public aware that there is some kind of genre called 'electronic dance music'. Normally, if I tell someone I'm a techno musician, they look at me crazy – like, 'What is that?' But now because it's all over the place, they kinda [go], 'Oh, that's cool!' But they still don't know what it is, except they think of David Guetta or the Swedish House Mafia or something like that. It doesn't really affect us at all.”

Octave One will be playing the following shows:

Friday 21 September - Electric Circus, Adelaide SA
Saturday 22 September - Democracy Club, Perth WA