Mysterious maestro Gillen succeeds on own turf, terms By Jason Birchmeier Daily Arts Writer As a close neighbor to Detroit, Ann Arbor has played a role in the evolution of the growing global techno music scene. In fact, one of the most important players in artistically motivated electronic music resides here in our quiet college town. You may have heard his radio show, bought his records, seen his performances or even passed him on the street, probably never even realizing the significance. If the name Brendan Gillen doesn't ring a bell, don't be surprised. In the faceless world of techno, it's the exception for names or faces to get much recognition. Instead, musical connoisseurs such as Gillen hide behind mythical aliases and communicate to their audiences with circular black vinyl records rather than with words or images. Speaking of communicating nonverbal concepts with vinyl records, Gillen specializes in this form of communication. From his home here in Ann Arbor, he ships many of these circular objects across the world through own personal record label, Interdimensional Transmissions. The name Gillen chose for his label should provide you with an idea about what plane of artistic thought he works on. If you want more examples of his knack for otherworldly audio compositions, consider some of the aliases he records as: Ectomorph, Flexitone and Audiohypnose. The man takes his work seriously and devotes a good portion of his every waking moment to electronic music. In addition to composing electronic music under multiple guises, the former University student releases other artists' music on Interdimensional Transmis-sions, distributes other independent electronic music labels such as *67 distribution, hosts a Thursday night radio show on 88.3 FM WCBN, performs live in places as far away as Germany and remains a central figure in the ever-evolving Detroit techno scene. Since its birth in the late '90s, Interdimensional Transmissions - which Gillen downplays as "a boutique label" - achieved immediate acclaim from the techno community and even mainstream publications such as Spin magazine. Catapulted into the spotlight by the international success of I-F's "Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass," Gillen first released a series of records before eventually releasing "From Beyond," which compiled many of the label's best tracks and artists on a CD. "I had no concept of how you make money in this business," Gillen confessed. "It wasn't some sort of major planned-out business thing. I was like 'Well, I'll release a record, and if it goes alright then I'll release another.' It was just like a test." This test came after Gillen took some of his music to Carl Craig - an iconic Detroit techno artist and CEO of Planet E Records - who liked "a lot of it, but didn't like all of it." It was after this experience that the man who calls himself Flexitone decided that "there was no better person to release the music" than himself. At the time Gillen was taking a break from the University and working as a music buyer for Detroit's largest electronic music retailer, Record Time. "I didn't have a lot of capital at the time so I just did it myself," Gillen continued. "It happened at this time that was weird in my life. I really didn't know what I wanted to do ... I felt like I was hearing the voices of the dead in my head, like voices of my ancestors trying to keep me on the right path to whatever your own personal bliss is - or whatever makes you really happy and fulfilled. These were the Interdimensional Transmissions." Gillen's early recordings as Flexitone and Ectomorph were influenced less by the legendary Detroit techno sounds of Richie Hawtin or Derrick May than the sound of the early '80s electro that he had heard as a young teenager. To this day, Gillen and his roster of artists on Interdimensional Transmissions have meshed old-school breakdancing-style electro sounds of Juan Atkins and Afrika Bambaataa with a slick, modern and intellectual aesthetic. "Our approach to electro isn't what everyone else's corny ass approach is," Gillen proclaimed with little modesty. "The impetus for our music isn't like 'oh geez, what trendy thing could I do?' It was just music that I loved. The really cool parts of the genre never really fully developed because all these other things came along. Electro - when it was super interesting - was a cross between techno and hip-hop." Though Gillen feels a musical attraction to the city he grew up with, he chooses to live in Ann Arbor rather than Detroit. Some of the reasons he listed include "smart people," "trees," "new energy," the ability to "walk around on the streets," personal space and his involvement with WCBN, which he lists as "a really crucial reason." A former music director, Gillen (along with local DJ Carlos Souffront) currently hosts a Thursday night show from 10 P.M. until midnight. There the duo attempts to educate their listeners about the past, present and future of electronic music. "It's got to be weird for you because you're just now seeing shadows of what really happened," Gillen said in reference to his first-hand perspective on the genre's mysterious evolution. "When you get inside things and see behind the myths, it's pretty funny. The story that's been told about techno is pretty far from what the story really is." Originally on page 4B in the 1-27-2000 issue of the Daily.