About Derrick May
Derrick May is an American DJ and producer from Belleville, Michigan who, alongside Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson, forms the trio known as the Belleville Three, credited with founding Detroit techno. May learned to DJ alongside Atkins and Saunderson, and the three presented music together as Deep Space Soundworks before May opened his own residency at The Music Institute in Detroit in 1988, a club that became a defining space for the city's early techno scene. Recording as Rhythim Is Rhythim, he released foundational tracks including Nude Photo and Strings of Life in 1987, output that came during a concentrated 1987 to 1989 production run after which his release schedule slowed considerably, even as his international DJ bookings continued. He founded the label Transmat, based on Gratiot Avenue in Detroit's Eastern Market district, an area known as Techno Alley, describing it as a home for original creation, while a companion label, Fragile, allowed more sample-based work; a side collective called KAOS operated separately from Deep Space Soundworks. From 2003 to 2004 May produced Movement, Detroit's riverfront electronic music festival that replaced the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, and he continued playing an active international DJ schedule for decades, including a documented set at DEMF in 2007, maintaining his standing as one of the originators of Detroit's techno sound.