Detroit native AbuQadim Haqq, the artist who gave form to the Drexciyan Empire and helped craft the visual identity of Transmat, Planet E, and Underground Resistance, has put 33 years of that imagination into an art book and compilation project.
Maybe the best way to grasp the expanse of this work and all it connects is just to hit play on the music compilation. With works by Orlando Voorn, Dopplereffekt, Artizhan, Meftah, and more, plus various collaborative configurations, this is a grooving mix bubbling with life. Far from the monotone repetitive caverns that people have come to associate with techno, this is in colors as lush and lively as Haqq’s visual palette, with all the vibrancy of a sci-fi comic cover. It also doesn’t shy away from broken beats and polyrhythms. Just listen:
You’ve gotta love “Down As Fresh,” to name one – stripped-down, totally irresistible groove. But you can also get why they’d appeal to an artist – it’s hard not to close your eyes and imagine sci-fi worlds to these cuts, even without the talent of AbuQadim Haqq to make it happen. So accordingly, he credits the tracks for some of the inspiration:
This is my album compilation project, a celebration of over 33 years as a visual artist in the electronic music industry. This project features incredible tracks from some of the excellent musicians I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and working with throughout my career. Each song is a testament to the talent and passion that has inspired me in my 33 year career as an techno visual artist
The book traces Haqq’s work from early Detroit life to the most recent work for Third Earth Visual Arts in 2023. You get 100 pages of art, 100 pages of photos, nearly 300 pages in total. And it looks simply amazing. I’m surprised this hasn’t gotten more attention, honestly, but IYKYK. (Okay, I’m actually finding it hard to even write this because I have the compilation on and… you just want to get lost in this on repeat.)
Find the book on Boomkat and eBay or your favorite book/record/comic store.
This comes on the heels of a series of Drexicya releases, including The Book of Drexciya, Vol. 1, which also saw release by Tresor Records. Other Drexicyan titles got self-released on The Drexciyan Empire including volume 2 plus A Drexicyan Duo Story – Mayhem in Mu!! earlier this year.
Haqq even teamed up with the mighty screenwriter Dai Sato (Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell) – techno has always been built on some Japan-Detroit connections. And you get more art from others, including Transmat visual labelmate Alan Oldham whose work we’ve covered here. (Noted with this book: “This project comes with the full support of living Drexciya member Gerald Donald and Helen Stinson, the surviving mother of James Stinson.”) From the notes on volume 1, some words on how deeply rooted these stories are in inter-generational trauma and ultimately Black liberation:
“African pregnant women thrown off the slave ships gave birth underwater to amphibious creatures. They could breathe as they did in their mothers’ wombs, they had webbed hands and feet and became the Drexciyan wave jumpers: great warriors of the abyss.” Revealed in the inner sleeve notes of The Quest (1997), through a map of the diasporic black culture, Drexciya illustrated four phases: The Slave Trade, Migration Route of Rural Blacks to Northern Cities, Techno Leaves Detroit, Spreads Worldwide, and The Journey Home (Future). It introduces the very creatures and warriors found in these pages, such as Wavejumpers and Deep Sea Dwellers. The return home is of destination future, where lays the population of their abyss.
More of the inside of this latest book, with some deep history:
Looks like a future worth fighting for.