Fanon Flowers // Subsist Podcast 006

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Fanon Flowers was born and raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan, exactly halfway between Detroit and Chicago, the birthplaces of techno and house music. A product of his environment, he grew up listening to Italian Disco, Chicago Acid House and Detroit Techno. At the age of 17, Fanon purchased his first synthesizer and drum machine and started buying dance 12" records. He soon developed a style which combined the funky, syncopated rhythms of techno with the soul of house music. He began to garner attention in 1994 when he appeared as Mode Selector on the "Elements of and Experiments with Sound" compilation on Detroit's seminal Planet E label. Subsequent EPs for such labels as Reference, Konsequent, Sheep, E-Com, and Holtzplatten established Flowers' reputation as a prominent American techno producer. In 1996, Fanon Flowers appeared under his Mode Selector alias on the "Detroit: Beyond the Third Wave" Compilation. Released on Astralwerks, Flowers appeared alongside Detroit techno stalwarts such as Claude Young, Ectomorph, Sean Deason, and Anthony "Shake" Shakir. That same year, Flowers started his own techno imprint, Mechanisms Industries (distributed by Triple Vision Holland), to showcase his unique and funky approach to techno. With over 40 records produced and released on various labels, Fanon Flowers embarked on several European Tours and One-off events playing in Slovakia, Spain, Belgium, Germany and England. Fanon Flowers also launched a new label in 2009 called Studio Sound (distributed by Crosstalk International Chicago). The label’s focus is Acid Techno and pure Detroit Techno and the first released is called the “Acid Kush EP” by Fanon Flowers. The second release called “Detroit-Chicago” was released in 2010. The year 2009 saw the release of Mechanisms Industries monster remix 12”of the legendary Hard minimal Techno track “Dom” by Obscurum originally released in 1997 on E-Com Records Germany. The remix 12” includes remixes by Spanish Techno producers Exium, Reeko and Fanon Flowers. In 2011 the latest project to be released on Mechanisms Industries called “Antikythera Mechanism”, showcases the depths of the Mechanisms sound. Also in 2011 were releases on Modularz, Reaktor and Sect Records (UK).