Flexitone

Flexitone is yet another bubble-up from the identity-shy Detroit underground. Combining the funky electro experiments of Underground Resistance and deep sea dwellers Drexciya with the stark, bleached-out minimalism of Synapse and Ectomorph, Flexitone number among a new breed of Detroit artists re-engaging techno's pre-history in the electronic breakbeat. In fact, the project is yet another pseudonym of electro/techno duo Ectomorph, the more common disguise of Brendan "BMG" Gillen and Gerald (also of Drexciya). The pair have released only a handful of tracks as Flexitone (through Carl Craig's Planet E imprint), but they've numbered among some of the most focused, evolved dance-based experimental electronic music to emerge from the American underground since Cybotron and Model 500. Flexitone's debut, "The Pulse of Evolution," appeared on the Planet E label compilation Elements of and Experiments with Sound, and an alternate mix of that track kicked off the group's first EP/picture disc for Planet E, "Rotoreliefs" (with disc art a reproduction of Marcel Duchamp's painting of the same name). The group's follow-up, "Nausicaa," appeared the following year, and continued in the same vein of atmospheric, downtempo electro as "Rotoreliefs," this time with a more complex melodic presence. Although Flexitone's tracks are unlikely to show up in the sets of any dancefloor DJs, they occupy similar territory with artists such as Autechre, Disjecta, Cylob, Bochum Welt, and Panasonic, rounding out the slight-but-growing American arm of dance-based experimental electronic listening music. [See Also: Ectomorph] ~ Sean Cooper