Kevin Saunderson’s legendary underground alias e-Dancer has returned and this time his son, Dantiez, is joining him at the controls.
The new LP from Motor City’s first family of techno marks the first original e-Dancer music since ’98 and the pair have been busy collaborating in the lab,regenerating e-Dancer for the modern dancefloor.
The newest evolution of the project sees the godfather of Detroit techno and his protege blast into the 2020s with a stack of
club-focused tracks custom built to jack dancefloors worldwide.
The pair combine to bring a fresh approach to the classic e-Dancer blueprint. This is soulful, groove-fuelled, underground techno that packs a low-end punch and is built from propulsive rhythms,
stripped-back percussion and bone-rattling basslines.
“When people hear the new album, I hope they feel the elevation and the synergy between the original e-Dancer and the new iteration,” Dantiez explains. During the process of making the new album, he’d go deep into the production process, paying homage to his father’s sonic palette while also adding a heavy dose of his own new school Detroit style.
“Dantiez sounds like me. Working on this next generation of e-Dancer with him, I’m more passionate and energetic than ever,” says Kevin.
“We swap my expertise for his technical knowledge. When people hear the album, I hope they hear the connection between a father and son on the same path of creating music. This album is about me, the pioneer, passing the torch to him to carry on the legacy. I know it’s his DNA. I know he was ready.”
In the ’90s, Kevin Saunderson sent shockwaves with e-Dancer’s seminal debut album, Heavenly. Amid sociopolitical storms, inner-city decay and protest, e-Dancer was a battle cry to connect people in a groove. It’s a techno masterpiece that has reverberated across the decades, from the 90’s to the 2020s, and is regarded as the definitive Detroit techno album.
Over the years e-Dancer has evolved in multiple stages. Fellow producers Juan Atkins and Carl Craig remixed the original tracks and Kenny Larkin revamped ‘Pump The Move’; Kevin Saunderson turned out an orchestral version of the album on ‘Heavenly Revisited’ and Adam Beyer’s Drumcode released ‘Re: Generate’, a full remix album. Now the father-son duo evolves the project once again.
Having wrapped the album, Kevin and Dantiez are looking forward to firing up the brand new e-Dancer live show, with plans for a production that features banks of synths and out-of-this world visuals for international dates across 2025. From Detroit to the world, e-Dancer and the Saundersons continue to write the legacy of underground techno.
“When I decided to make music, my path was to make people dance. It always will be,” Kevin says. “Dance is happiness; it’s joyful. It’s a connection between different cultures, races and people around the world. Even if you don’t speak the same language, we can all speak the language of dance.”
