Contrary to what some people in the city believe, Ears To The House are big fans of Detroit. We believe the city’s legacy of house and techno music belongs to far more than just the so-called Belleville Three – and when even they are starting to accept this fact themselves, you know you’re onto something.

So, how do you find more about the true sound of Detroit house and techno today? Well, what you don’t do is go to Movement – despite the froth written by Annabel Ross last week, Detroit’s own artists were represented quite poorly by festival owners Paxahau. Scheduling decisions meant many were competing against international talent on vastly inflated fees.

Instead, you could try Tec-Troit. You could be forgiven if you hadn’t heard of this – Ears To The House were unaware of it until recently. Despite spending two years putting Detroit techno under the microscope – and enjoying making Derrick May angry in the process – Tec-Troit still hadn’t crossed our radar.

But we’re glad it has now. From what we’ve seen, the festival – which was founded back in 2011 – is a much more accurate reflection of what’s been going on in Detroit’s dance music scene than a certain other festival mentioned earlier.

Entry is totally free and always has been. As for the lineup, it consists almost entirely of local names on the scene…

But the most revealing thing of all? Names like Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Carl Craig, and the rest are nowhere to be seen. And as far as we’ve been able to establish, they’ve never been on the lineup – but why is this?

One regular Detroit source says “I can’t be totally sure of this, but I don’t think they’ve ever been invited. There’s been a kind of resentment in Detroit for a long time over the way the Belleville Three took over the narrative. The lack of Derrick May on the bill isn’t something anyone’s ever noticed, anyway.”.

Long may it continue – rest assured this is one event that Ears To The House will be covering more in the future…