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April Clare Welsh
12 April 2023, 13:45

Detroit's musical and social history from 1960s onwards explored in new book

"A mind-expanding tour through time and space that explores the lost possibilities, histories and hidden potentials of the city"

Acid detroit

A new book explores Detroit's musical and social history from the 1960s onwards.

Written by Joe Molloy, Acid Detroit: A Psychedelic Story of Motor City Music constructs a "technicolour" view of the Motor City at a time when the spotlight was predominantly on California, offering "a mind-expanding tour through time and space that explores the lost possibilities, histories and hidden potentials of the city".

Taking its cue from Mark Fisher's notion of 'acid communism', the book aims to show how Detroit was "an unequalled hotbed of radical activism, urban unrest and sonic innovation" and covers everything from garage rock to techno and hip-hop.

Pick up a copy of Acid Detroit: A Psychedelic Story of Motor City Music from Repeater books here.

Read how Drexciya's 'The Quest' embedded the Detroit act's mythology in dance music history and how Urban Tribe's 'The Collapse Of Modern Culture' is an under-the-radar masterpiece of Detroit futurism.

Last year, Ria Hylton spoke to Detroit-born, Atlanta-based DJ Ash Lauryn about repping a soulful, classic house sound in her sets and helping preserve and bring back to the fore the Black roots of electronic music through her Underground & Black project.