Cybotron

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Cybotron was an electronic duo from Detroit, formed around 1980 by Juan Atkins and Richard Davis, who also called himself 3070. Detroit was then a city in decline: the car industry was shrinking and many neighbourhoods were emptying out. In that setting, Atkins and Davis made music about machines, cities and the future. They released their first records, Alleys of Your Mind and Cosmic Cars, on Atkins's own label, Deep Space Records. The influential Detroit radio DJ The Electrifying Mojo played them, and so the group quickly became known.

Music and breakthrough

In 1983 the album Enter appeared, featuring Clear and Techno City. Cybotron blended the funk of George Clinton with the electronic music of Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra. Drum machines and synthesizers were not an aid but the heart of the music. The rhythms are repetitive and mechanical, the melodies synthetic. Books such as Alvin Toffler's Future Shock also inspired the duo, and their image of black musicians in a technological future is often counted as part of Afrofuturism.

Influence

After a disagreement with Davis, Atkins left in the mid-1980s. Davis continued under the name Cybotron, while Atkins, as Model 500 and with his label Metroplex, shaped the sound of Detroit techno. That puts Cybotron at the beginning of techno, which crossed over to the United Kingdom in the late 1980s and fed rave culture there. Clear has often been sampled since.

Listening

• 
  Clear · Cybotron, 1983
  Apple Music ↗

Discography

Studio albums

• 1983Enter
• 1993Empathy
• 1995Cyber Ghetto
• 2004Alleys of Your Mind / Off to Battle

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 8: Electronic Music^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Detroit techno GenreAtkins began Cybotron in 1981 and in 1985, as Model 500, released No UFO's.

See also

• Electro