Motor City Drum Ensemble
Motor City Drum Ensemble is the recording and DJ alias of Danilo Plessow, a German producer and DJ raised in Schwäbisch Gmünd whose name nods to his Detroit techno influences. Known for his technical command behind the decks and a jazz-informed, deep house-rooted DJ style, Plessow curated the Nuits Sonores festival in Lyon in 2016 and has toured internationally, playing clubs and festivals across Europe and beyond. He previously worked as a radio presenter for Gilles Peterson's Worldwide FM, extending his reach as a tastemaker beyond club sets, and he contributed an installment to the DJ-Kicks mix series under the Motor City Drum Ensemble name, drawing on his eclectic record collection spanning disco, funk and soul-inflected house. Plessow has co-founded several labels, including MCDE Recordings, Four Roses Recordings and Space Grape Records, the latter focused on live contemporary music made with collaborators such as Jéroboam and members of Kyoto Jazz Massive. He also records under aliases including Inverse Cinematics, Vermont, Jayson Brothers and Basic-Variation, and continues DJing regularly, with recent sets documented at venues including FIDELITY in Dublin, sustaining a reputation built over more than fifteen years on the international deep house circuit.