Dusted Down: Aux Men – Live @ DEMF 2002 (Rare official bootleg CD)

A chance find in a Detroit warehouse sees this rare gem back in stock

Dusted Down: Aux Men – Live @ DEMF 2002 (Rare bootleg CD)

We’re not usually in the business of dusting down cover artists, but when said artists are boiler suit-clad Detroit technicians at the pinnacle of their live music game, all the usual rules are thrown out the window.

The Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF) – now known as Movement – has been running in the city’s Hart Plaza every Memorial Day weekend since the year 2000. That year, the turn of the millennium, fears and hopes were rife over technological phenomena, including digital doomsday scenarios (Y2K) and sci-fi style interstellar travel (take 2001: A Space Odyssey). Two years later, in 2002, the rest of the world had come back down to Earth – perhaps respectfully quietened by the aftermath of 9/11, and humbled by the realisation that technology might yet advance at a slower pace than their hopes might have led them to expect. 

But not Detroit. Being the birthplace of techno as we know it, the city had been gazing into the future for more than 30 years. 2002 had already seen Detroit techno’s first come-up, and coincided with the latest phase of the new digital age. Households across the world were not only neck-deep in their crude laptops, email and digital pager tech, but were slowly awakening to the possibilities of internet video technology – YouTube was only a few years away. And after decades poor economic policy, Detroit’s people saw these horizons as the potential deus ex machina they needed, and were more interested in these ideas than most.

Detroit techno was far ahead of its time, not of its time. An unfortunate byproduct of this was that it couldn’t be captured as effectively as we would have liked. Aux Men’s live performance at DEMF 2002 is grainy at best. The recording, which we ironically found on YouTube, was originally housed on a Maxell T-120 STD videotape. But that, of course, feeds into the noughties nostalgia (forget the 90s) that today’s e-boys, e-girls and e-people now feel. Watch the video, and a sense of rarity kicks in. It’s from nearly two decades ago already, and that’s not to mention the digital, pastel distortion encroaching on its quality.

Aux Men were an electro supergroup from Detroit, pushed by Keith Tucker’s Puzzlebox label, and effectively an expanded version of the band Aux 88. Besides core members Tommy Hamilton, Posatronix and Blak Tony, their lineup also contained Tucker, Marty Bonds and the techno trio Strand. Breaking from Aux 88’s focus on making original music, this performance is purely a covers’ affair – with everyone from John Williams to Funkadelic in tow. 

Adding to the rare feel of the tape, the bootleg CD which houses the only HD recording of their set was discovered in the Puzzlebox warehouse . Pulling it off the shelf and dusting it off opened up a rather large rabbit hole, and it’s now listed under the category ‘Warehouse Find’ on the main site, legitimizing our gushing sense of nostalgia over it.

Not included on the CD, but witnessable on the YouTube VHS rip, is an address delivered to the DEMF crowd – located far below the band, who are elevated like UFO-ing aliens above a humble Earth – by an unknown individual, regarding the recent 9/11 catastrophe. “I just want to take a moment to remember what this day is all about… so let’s give a round of applause to all the policemen, and firemen, and women in this city.”

A sudden distortion follows, and we cut to an introduction by Detroit legends Eddie Fowlkes and DJ Bone, who welcome the band. At this point, if you own the bootleg CD, your sense of nostalgic, piecemeal self-reliance should kick in here; it’s possible to sync up the video and the CD, taking the experience to its fullest capacity. “We bout to set it off… now introducing Aux 88… it’s been upgraded… we need an upgrade… for the new millennium,” says Bone. The crowd jeers as all six members enter stage left, clad in military vests and cargo pants, and marching to John Williams’ main Star Wars theme.

Now the CD disalloys itself from the VHS, and we’re taken by a 10 minute prelude, in which the same voice urges us to “let the music play” – to forget any recent tragedy. Sine tones, piano flourishes and wind chimes tinkle, setting an expositional mood not born from the school of Jeff Mills or Mad Mike, but Vangelis or Count Basie. Amidst the jazzy ambience, a voice hears: “I have prepared my ship for takeoff, and now we’re ready for hyperspace”.

Suddenly, a beat drops, and the pulsing piano of Derrick May’s ‘Strings Of Life’ resounds, as one of the band members assures us to “make some noise” and “give it up for the cosmic soldier”. What proceeds is an unstoppable slice of future-positivity from the Aux Men: turning their backs to anything rockist or fearful, they embark on a medley of well-known techno and Afrofuturist classics. Our now familiar robot voice assures of “solitude, and many mental encounters of the third kind”, as a full-on Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra medley ensues, seeing to covers of ‘Man Machine’ and ‘Computer Games’. Afrika Bambaataa’s ‘Planet Rock’, prefaced by cosmic mists and ambience, hears the most applause – “are you ready!?” – while lesser-known classics from the Aux Men’s affiliates, including the Jonzun Crew’s ‘Pack Jam’ and A Number Of Names’ ‘Shari Vari’, careens between the hits to no less success.

Even downtempo is checked off – the Art Of Noise’s ‘Moments In Love’ gets its own beautiful 11 minute slot, framed oddly by the clippy tone of Aux Men’s drum machines, and bookended on both sides by an impeccable live piano that sets the tone for what’s next to come. “See, electronic music can be slow and soothing, you know what I’m saying?”

And what is next, exactly? A true foray through the music of Funakdelic and Cybotron – two Afrofuturist techno mainstays and pioneers in their respective genres – that’s what. Find the exact right moments in the VHS rip and you’ll catch them; for ‘Cosmic Slop’, Strand and Marty Bonds deliver an insane moment of guitar shreddage, whilst later, the Cybotron medley hears a living, breathing techno catalyst, Juan Atkins, brought out to help perform the three tracks ‘Cosmic Cars’, ‘Alleys Of Your Mind’ and ‘Cosmic Raindance’.

Contextualising the entire performance are amplified vocal snippets from Detroit radio DJ The Electrifying Mojo, whose transmissions preceded the emergence of techno, and were instrumental in the development of the genre’s robotic themes. Between the expertly-mixed beats and rich interludes, you’ll be sure to hear a dubious, looming repetition – simply, “electrifying mojo”, stuck on repeat. For Aux 88, an “electrifying mojo” came in the form of techno, and this live CD – unfairly relegated to bootleg form – is their form of thanks to DJs and artists like him. Emerging at the time of unprecedented political and technological change in the United States and beyond, ‘Live @ DEMF 2002’ captures a zeitgeist we do not enjoy today; gratitude for the symbiotic relationship between man and machine, and pure excitement for our inevitable, technological future.

Jude Iago James