I'm struggling to process the death of Juan Atkins, to find the words to describe the meaning and significance of this moment. It became even harder after reading Jeff Mills' perfect tribute, which actually spoke relatively little about Atkins the person, but volumes about his immeasurable contributions to music. There's very little I can say that Mills hasn't already expressed more eloquently.
Describing Atkins as a "techno pioneer" feels quaint and inadequate. The man played a foundational role not merely in creating a genre of music, but in establishing an entire philosophy of music, one that spread across continents and took root in countries and cultures that otherwise had little in common with his own. That philosophy envisioned music as a gateway to a futuristic, more rational, more peaceful world, propelled by the dreams and hopes inspired by extraordinary new technologies.
His death attracted surprisingly little attention outside the electronic music world. Recognition was slow in coming. Many major news outlets barely registered it during the first couple of days. I don't think this can be explained away by lingering associations with drug culture, or by racism. To me, it reflects the persistent failure of much of the mainstream music media to recognize the reach, originality, and creative significance of electronic music, period.
Naturally, his death sent me down a rabbit hole of his recordings. I had never heard Borderland, his collaboration with Moritz von Oswald, a brilliant melding of their respective styles that makes you wonder why it didn't happen twenty years earlier.
Atkins was a fixture on techno compilations. I have at least fifteen featuring his contributions, and his presence always carried a certain authority. Seeing his name on the track listing was practically a stamp of authenticity: THIS is techno. Very few musicians in any genre have ever commanded that kind of recognition.
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