Silent Phase

Although he's released barely a 12-inch a year and only a single studio full-length since getting his start in 1990, second wave Detroit techno artist and DJ Stacey Pullen is already one of the techno mecca's leading contemporary artists. Closer to Kenny Larkin and Derrick May in his approach, Pullen's drive to restore the spirituality and soul of techno figures him as a classicist in the widest sense (although his disdain for the analog sound of early Detroit distances him sharply from techno's old school). Living the Motor City club scene as a kid, Pullen began DJing early on, drawn to the new-school machine music of Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, and Soft Cell. Although his interest in production began early, his first chance behind the boards didn't come until the early '90s, when Derrick May gave him an inside track on a business he was desperate to get out of. Learning studio technique through May and the various projects that came through the latter's Transmat label studio, Pullen began releasing material first as Bango, then Kosmik Messenger and X-Stacy, before focusing on his current nom de plume, Silent Phase. Known for fusing the more musical aspects of house and garage into a steadfastly techno framework, Pullen's complex, often tribal-sounding compositions have proven influential on a number of fronts, from deep house to hardcore. His 1995 full-length A Theory of Silent Phase appeared on Transmat/R&S, while a Kosmic Messenger compilation was released on Elypsia two years later. In 1998, Pullen signed a contract with the electronica label Astralwerks and continued working on material.