In its late-’80s infancy, Detroit techno wasn’t just dominated by male DJs and producers; its overarching mythology—its parallels to the automotive industry, both in its machine-assisted production and its machine-mimicking sound—presupposed that making techno was a man’s work. A native Detroiter, DJ/producer Kelli Hand took on the gender-ambiguous moniker K-HAND for that very reason—to bypass those assumptions—and, after having immersed herself in New York’s house scene in the ’80s during college, began writing a chapter of Detroit’s musical history that would span nearly 30 years. In 2017, she was recognized by Detroit's city council as the First Lady of Detroit (she'd long been known colloquially as First Lady of Detroit Techno), but it was hardly just a platitude. Hand, who died on August 3, 2021, at the age of 56, was a foundational figure for the music, and, via her fixture status on the European club circuit and through countless releases on electronic powerhouse labels Tresor, Warp, and !K7 (as well as her own Acacia Records), did as much as anyone to spread techno’s gospel worldwide. Like the range displayed on her tracks—early cuts like the throbbing “Think About It” to the jacking “These Sounds” to the twinkling “Candlelights”—she was also a masterful, technical DJ who rode the groove relentlessly, playing warm and deep or hard and squelchy without ever forgetting the funk and soul that were so elemental to her work.