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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Kevin Saunderson is one of the three legendary Detroit dj's and producers who
invented techno (the other two being Juan Atkins and Derrick May) and changed
forever the face (and sound) of dance-music.
Born in Brooklyn in 1964 (the ninth child in his family),
Saunderson moved as a child to Detroit where he
eventually hooked up with high-school pals Derrick May and Juan Atkins and
started spinning at local radio stations. Soon, he started producing his own
extended singles, under nicknames such as Kreem (Triangle of Love),
Reese (The Sound, Bounce Your Body to the Box,
Rock to the Beat), E-Dancer (Pump the Move),
Inter-City, Tronik House, Essaray, Kaos, etc.
His collaboration with Chicago singer Paris Grey (real name Shanna Jackson),
christened Inner City, started in 1987 with
Big Fun (Virgin, 1988), which later became a world-wide hit and was soon
followed by Good Life.
They thus pioneered the techno boom of 1988.
The demand for his music was high not
only in US clubs but around Europe. He became a strong influence on continental
and UK dj's who launched the European version of techno
(Inner City will go on to gain eight UK top 40 hits in five years
as well as two hit albums with combined sales of more than 6 million).
What was unique about Saunderson's dance-music was the German flavor: his
music owed more to Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream than to rhythm and blues
(unlike, say, Chicago house, and, of course, hip hop).
Inner City's charts attack continued with Ain't Nobody Better.
The album Paradise (Virgin, 1989) was the
first full-length released by a Detroit techno dj.
The pop and soul flavor of Fire (Virgin, 1990) was paramount to
betrayal of the techno aestethics,
but Saunderson continued his more experimental work as the Reese Project,
inaugurated by Hope & Clarity (SIX6, 1992).
While the singles kept coming (Watcha Gonna Do with My Lovin,
That Man, Back Together Again), albeit with lower and lower
quality, the third album Praise (Virgin, 1992) ignited hopes of
return to the grand form of 1988 thanks to the surreal techno jam
Ahnongay. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the exception, not the rule.
Do Ya and Share My Life climbed the charts in 1994.
Hallelujah and Pennies From Heaven were also dancefloor favorites.
Hiatus (1996) confirmed Saunderson's decandence as a god of techno.
techno.
Faces And Phases (Planet E, 1998) is an anthology of hard-techno
rarities published under different monikers. This album did more to
establish Saunderson's artistic credentials than all the Inner City albums together.
Overall, Saunderson is certainly important as a dj, but has never truly
convinced as an author. His singles are catchy and groovy, but that's where
his lesson ends. It is likely that his lesser known hard-techno tracks
recorded under a variety of minikers will last longer than the commercial
Inner City hits.
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