The Prince of Techno
Blake Baxter
born in 1963
Since he was a teenager, Blake Baxter has been DJing all styles of dance music, including Hip Hop, R&B, Reggae, Dancehall, Alt Rock, and Disco. He also worked on his own, and after a few years of studio production in Detroit and Chicago, Blake was signed to Chicago Illinois's DJ international dance music record label.
Blake released music on Transmat Records and was responsible for the funky bassline on Kaos Juice Bar. Those artists and their sound were introduced to the world on the first Detroit techno compilation on Virgin Ten Records. After the release of Virgin Ten, Blake Baxter worked on four projects for the album.
Blake Baxter's signature style combines spoken word and poetry with electronic dance music, poetic whispers, sometimes sexy but always thought-provoking. So he should be called a poet and a drummer because that is what he does. Bringing a poetic scene was something so phenomenal back then that it was a style barely accounted for.
Baxter avoided the hype around the essential Detroit compilation Techno: The New Dance Sound of Detroit (although his productions appeared prominently on the compilation) and moved to the obscure Incognito record label.
Blake Baxter's sound for DJ international wasn't traditional Chicago house music. It tended to sound darker with a combination of industrial sounds and acid house influences; before the techno sound was formed in Detroit. This holds credibility as his journey has been one of creation, explosives, and a whole lot of trial and error.
Following a brief tour with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson in the UK, Blake Baxter was affectionately referred to as the Prince of Techno! A tune titled Sexuality was released on Incognito Records in the spring of 2000, followed by a 12 inch EP titled Prince of Techno on the Underground Resistance label. He always was and always will be the Prince of Techno!
He released One More Time on Tresor Records and Brothers Gonna Work it Out on Logic Records in Berlin. The latter was based on Willie Hutch's 1973 eponymous release, later sampled by The Chemical Brothers.
DJ Blake Baxter is unquestionably a pivotal contributor to the 1st wave of techno coming out of Detroit and a big part of the electronic music movement. An expert mix of tech-house and techno is a necessary tool for today's dance floor.
One of the top places that Blake has played in is Berlin - he found a beautiful music connection in this city and continues to mark his words. This warmed the hearts and many and led to him falling in love many times over. This also reflected heavily in his music, which led to such masterpieces. It is always better when you have a muse!
Baxter also found his feet on the app Soundcloud. With a mere 12.7k followers, he has a record number of streams and has been known to reply to inquiries on this platform. This is proved to be a hit as he creates a new way to communicate with his fans and business inquiries.