Kenny Larkin

Detroit techno with a Chicago swing

Kenny Larkin's Detroit techno never sounded like a genre manual: it combines the muscular backbeat of the machine with a sway closer to Chicago house, soul-inflected melodies, and an experimentation that left its mark on techno in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. After serving in the Air Force—stationed in Florida, where he developed a taste for house—he returned to Detroit, heard techno on the radio, and began frequenting The Shelter and The Music Institute, where he saw Derrick May DJ. His friendship with Richie Hawtin led him to Plus 8: We Shall Overcome (1990) and Integration (1991) marked his entry into the second wave, alongside names like Jeff Mills and Carl Craig.

Azimuth on Warp and the Dark Comedy mask

Azimuth, released by Warp Records in 1994, remains his calling card: hi-tech funk, spacey atmospheres, and dancefloor cuts with a very recognizable melancholy—Tedra summarizes that intimate side. In 1995, Metaphor on R&S Records tightened the rhythm and percussion, with tracks like Soul Man and Loop 2. As Dark Comedy, he signed the Corbomite Maneuver EP on Transmat and albums like Seven Days. Since his label Art of Dance, opened in the nineties, he has controlled a large part of his catalog, also under aliases like Yennek.

The comedy hiatus and the Planet E album

At the end of the nineties, he sidelined production to dedicate himself to stand-up comedy, although he did not leave the DJ booths. He returned to the studio in 2004 with The Narcissist on Peacefrog. Keys, Strings, Tambourines (2008), on Carl Craig's Planet E, was one of the most talked-about electronic records of that year: Resident Advisor included it among its twenty essential albums and PopMatters placed it among the best of the year. The remix of OK by Ben Klock (2009) confirmed his demand as a remixer in the European scene.

Reissues, Tedra Studios, and current dancefloors

In 2021, Art of Dance reissued Azimuth in an expanded edition, remastered from DAT tapes; in 2022, more catalog revivals followed. His private studio, Tedra Studios, moved from Detroit to Los Angeles in 2016, works with an analog workflow centered on API consoles. He continues to tour Europe and America—with a set broadcast by HÖR in Berlin in August 2024—and his current booking is handled by Dskonnect. Far from being the media face of techno, he has earned the respect of producers and DJs for a warm, precise, and hard-to-copy sound.