Artist
Parliament-Funkadelic
George Clinton's cosmic funk collectives from Plainfield, New Jersey, provided the groove and Afrofuturist vision that Detroit techno would channel through synthesizers and drum machines. The Mothership Connection aesthetic was central to techno's futuristic imagery. Juan Atkins bought his first synthesizer, a Korg MS-10, at fifteen after hearing Parliament. The "more cosmic side of Parliament funk" welded with Kraftwerk's rigid computer synth pop became Detroit techno's foundational equation—as Derrick May put it, "like George Clinton and Kraftwerk caught in an elevator, with only a sequencer to keep them company."