It’s a painful year for techno’s originators and Detroit. News is spreading today that Sean Tate, aka The Butcher and an iconic techno originator, has died.
Instead of an obituary, here’s Sean Tate himself on what it is to select tracks, as part of an interview and mix for BassAgenda:
“The main element is production — it’s what every producer has put in each and every track. You can hear Detroit in every single track … you can hear the streets, you can hear the sounds, you can hear the gunshots, you can hear the police sirens, you can hear the ambulance sirens, you can hear the kids playing, you can hear the cheers from the old Tiger Stadium, you can hear the cheers from Joe Lewis Arena, you can hear the people laughing at Hart Plaza, you can hear the water running at Belle Isle. You can see things, you can see Belle Isle. You can see the fountain. You can see Hart Plaza. You can see how much life Detroit had in the 80s and 90s, and even up until now. So when you listen to the tracks that I’ve selected, you can hear all of that. Plus on top of that, you can hear the personality of each and every producer.”
And yeah: you can hear The Butcher. What a thing it is to be alive in the music, to have that ghost in the machine.
And how important it is to share that moment with the artist when they’re still with us, and what a loss you feel when they’re gone. So my heart goes out to everyone surviving Sean Tate and all of Detroit. We had better keep supporting you; this is a tough time, to say the least.
Video by Aconite:
We’ve truly been blessed ourselves by this music and presence:
“Can you imagine … the soul … the passion?”