Stacey Pullen

Although he's released barely a 12-inch a year and rarely a full-length since getting his start in 1990, second wave Detroit techno artist and DJ Stacey Pullen is 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 the early Detroit sound 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 do 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.