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DeForrest Brown, Jr.
Also known as Speaker Music
Origin Birmingham, Alabama
Genres techno, Black music, experimental, avant-garde, noise
Occupation(s) cultural theorist, journalist, musician
Labels PTP, Planet Mu

DeForrest Brown, Jr. is a writer, music expert, and curator. He also makes music under his own name and as Speaker Music. DeForrest is known for being part of the "Make Techno Black Again" campaign. His writings explore how the experiences of Black people in factory jobs connect with their new ideas in electronic music. His work has been featured in many places, including Artforum and NPR.

His first book, Assembling a Black Counter Culture, came out in 2022. His second book, this simulation sux, was written with Ting Ding and published in 2024.

Early Life and Education

DeForrest Brown, Jr. was born in 1990 in Tampa, Florida. His family later moved to Birmingham, Alabama. His father was a teacher and a deacon in a church, and his mother was a social worker.

He went to Tuggle Elementary School. This school was started in 1903 by Carrie A. Tuggle, who worked to end slavery.

DeForrest learned to play the trumpet from the same teacher as his father. His father even played in a college band with Sun Ra, a famous musician known for his Afrofuturist ideas.

DeForrest later attended the University of North Alabama.

His Work and Music

DeForrest moved to New York City in 2013. He worked in bookstores and started writing about music. There, he met Ting Ding and Luz Fernandez, who created "Make Techno Black Again." This idea began as a fun internet meme. It then grew into a campaign for their clothing line, Hecha. Later, it became a music group when DeForrest created a music mix for them.

In 2017, DeForrest worked with sound artist Kepla (Jon Davies) on a project called 'Absent Personae'. This music was released by a New York City group called Purple Tape Pedigree.

In 2018, he released a mixtape called "The Wages of Being Black Is Death" on PTP. This music was praised by Planet Mu, a record label in the U.K. that works with many talented Black American music producers.

Assembling a Black Counter Culture

DeForrest Brown, Jr.'s 2022 book, "Assembling a Black Counter Culture," shares a Black perspective on techno music. It explains how techno is different from how it was often seen in mostly white European electronic music scenes in the 2000s and 2010s.

In his book, DeForrest connects Black electronic music to Afrofuturism. Afrofuturism is a way of thinking about the future through the eyes of African people and their descendants. He shows how techno music spread from Detroit to other cities around the world. This happened through people working together, creating music, and sharing it. He was inspired by early techno pioneers like The Belleville Three, Underground Resistance, and Drexciya.

Recent Performances

On June 21, 2024, DeForrest performed with tap dance artist Michael J. Love. Their show was called Standpoint (Rhy)pistemology and took place in Brooklyn, New York. The performance showed the important Black history of techno and house music through both planned and unplanned tap dancing.

Discography

Release year Title Label Personnel/Notes
2017 Absent Personae PTP Kepla & DeForrest Brown, Jr.
2018 The Wages of Being Black is Death PTP Kepla & DeForrest Brown, Jr.
2019 of desire, longing Planet Mu Speaker Music
2020 processing intimacy Speaker Music
2020 Percussive Therapy Speaker Music
2020 Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry Planet Mu Speaker Music
2020 As Serious As Your Life PTP Speaker Music & bookworms
2020 a bitter but beautiful struggle PTP Speaker Music
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