Cybotron was an early electro group formed in 1980 by Juan Atkins

Juan Atkins

Juan Atkins is an American musician. He is widely credited as the originator of techno music, specifically Detroit techno along with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson...

 and Richard "3070" Davis

Richard Davis (techno artist)

Richard Davis is a composer and producer of techno music from Detroit.A veteran of the Vietnam War, he and Juan Atkins met while students at Washtenaw Community College. Following this, they formed the group known as Cybotron in the early 1980s. Davis also released music of his own under the...

 in Detroit, Michigan

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

. Guitarist John "Jon 5" Housley joined soon afterward. Cybotron had a number of singles now considered classics of the electro genre, particularly "Clear

Clear (song)

"Clear" is a 1983 Electro song performed by the American group Cybotron, and composed by Cybotron members Juan Atkins and Richard Davis.- Sampled versions :...

" and the group's debut "Alleys Of Your Mind", as well as "Cosmic Cars" and "R-9".

Influences

The group was inspired by midwestern funk, especially the music of George Clinton

George Clinton (funk musician)

George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...

, along with European synthesizer pioneers Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...

, Japanese electro pioneers Yellow Magic Orchestra

Yellow Magic Orchestra

Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band...

, English electropop, Italo disco

Italo disco

Italo disco encompasses much of the dance music output in Europe during the 1980s. It is one of the world's first forms of mostly electronic dance music and evolved during the late 1970s and early 1980s in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and other parts of Europe...

, and futurist literary influences such as Alvin Toffler

Alvin Toffler

Alvin Toffler is an American writer and futurist, known for his works discussing the digital revolution, communication revolution, corporate revolution and technological singularity....

's books Future Shock

Future Shock

Future Shock is a book written by the futurist Alvin Toffler in 1970. In the book, Toffler defines the term "future shock" as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies. His shortest definition for the term is a personal perception of "too much change in too short a period of...

and The Third Wave

The Third Wave (book)

The Third Wave is a book published in 1980 by Alvin Toffler. It is the sequel to Future Shock, published in 1970, and the second in what was originally just a trilogy that was continued with Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century in 1990...

. The name "Cybotron", coined by Atkins, is a portmanteau of cyborg

Cyborg

A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...

 and cyclotron

Cyclotron

In technology, a cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator. In physics, the cyclotron frequency or gyrofrequency is the frequency of a charged particle moving perpendicularly to the direction of a uniform magnetic field, i.e. a magnetic field of constant magnitude and direction...

. Atkins was fond of creating such "futuristic-sounding" words — the record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 names "Metroplex

Metroplex (record label)

Metroplex is a techno record label in Detroit, founded in 1985 by techno pioneer Juan Atkins. Juan Atkins did most of his work for the label under the pseudonyms Model 500 and Infiniti.-Discography:* M-001 Model 500 - No UFOs/Future...

" and "Transmat" being other examples.

Relation to techno

Although generally considered electro, Cybotron was also part of the early evolution of techno music. Cybotron was the first musical outlet of techno co-"originator" Juan Atkins, and the group's unique combination of musical influences, boldly experimental aesthetic, and afro-futurist philosophy became the underpinnings of Detroit Techno

Detroit techno

Detroit techno is an early style of electronic music beginning in the 1980s. Detroit, Michigan has been cited as the birthplace of techno music. Prominent Detroit Techno artists include Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson...

.

Success and breakup

Formed in 1981, Cybotron first singles were "Alleys of Your Mind" and "Cosmic Cars," released as 7-inch disks on Atkins' own label Deep Space Records. In total, these disks sold 15,000 copies. In 1983, the group was signed to the Berkeley, California

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

-based Fantasy

Fantasy Records

Fantasy Records is a United States-based record label that was founded by Max and Sol Weiss in 1949 in San Francisco, California. They had previously operated a record-pressing plant called Circle Record Company before forming the Fantasy label...

 label and released its debut album, Enter.

In 1985, Atkins left the group due to artistic differences with Davis. Davis wanted the group to pursue a musical direction closer to rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

, while Atkins wanted to continue in the electro-style vein of "Clear

Clear (song)

"Clear" is a 1983 Electro song performed by the American group Cybotron, and composed by Cybotron members Juan Atkins and Richard Davis.- Sampled versions :...

." After the breakup, Davis carried on and released several records as Cybotron, the last in 1995. Atkins still has an active musical career. He founded Metroplex Records and continued releasing records under several names, including Model 500, Model 600, and Infiniti. Atkins also continued DJing under his own name.

Album discography

• Enter (1983)
• Clear
  Clear (song)
  "Clear" is a 1983 Electro song performed by the American group Cybotron, and composed by Cybotron members Juan Atkins and Richard Davis.- Sampled versions :...
  
  (Enter with a slightly changed track listing, 1990)
• Empathy (1993)
• Cyber Ghetto (1995)
• Motor City Machine Music (A 'greatest hits' album, 2005)

External links

• Cybotron's website maintained by Rik Davis, which features a lot of his occult
  Occult
  The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
  
   and science fiction
  Science fiction
  Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
  
   interests.
• Cybotron discography at Discogs
  Discogs
  Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
  
  .