Music

Jimmy Edgar loves Detroit, but it's complicated

by Marsha Casselman

If you live in any city, chances are you’re in a love-hate relationship with it. Perhaps irked by certain aspects like the high crime, the poverty, or the grime, you’ll also probably be first to come to your city’s defense.

This seems especially true for the people of Detroit, a city beat down by auto industry failure and abandoned by over half of its population since its peak in the ‘50s. Yet, according to lore, the soul of this city can never die. Proof of that came in the late ‘80s and ‘90s, when locals invented a peaceful, communal, hopeful artform amongst the boarded-up industrial spaces: a machine-like futuristic funk they called techno.

One of those pioneers, Derrick May, now 49, has teamed up with Detroit’s new generation, producer Jimmy Edgar, 29, to help perpetuate the magical myth of the Motor City with a double-disc compilation, We Love Detroit, released last month.

“I feel proud of my city,” says Edgar. “Environment is key to so much of ourselves. It’s essentially our spirits and where our hearts reside, or on the flip side, could be [the source of] our most painful tragedies. But you know what they say about hate—it’s just locked love.”

Edgar fondly remembers spending his formative years at Detroit techno parties like Untitled and Dorkwave, watching resident DJs like Matthew Dear, Dabrye, and Seth Troxler. Also an accomplished fashion photographer, Edgar eventually became known for his own rebellious, sexed-up electro style of production. On We Love Detroit, Edgar’s selections span the new Detroit with tracks from Magda and Axiom Crux, while May’s selections include classic techno sounds from John Beltran and Carl Craig as well as modern locals like Kai Alce and Andres.

“Detroit has a feel,” Edgar insists. “People try to recreate the sound, but it lacks the heart of Detroit. There is something you can’t quite put your finger on that makes music like Derrick (May)’s, Juan (Atkins)’s, Kevin (Saunderson)’s, Kyle (Hall)’s, and Kris Wadsworth’s a kind of trying, struggling, crying, machine-like rhythm presence. I never know how to quite explain it, and journalists fascinate about it, but it’s something to experience for yourself.”

May has said he still lives in Detroit because he likes the “the idea of a good fight.” Edgar, on the other hand, up and left (speaking of love-hate relationships), and now resides in New York and Berlin for the sake of his DJ career.

“I’ll probably go back one day. It’s just not working [right now], and most people agree,” Edgar admits. “I’ve tried several times and it’s just too hard to live there and too easy to live anywhere else. I really love my home and I always will, that’s why I talk about it too much. There is so much potential and so much history.”