Drexciya interview: [YouTube]
This was James Stinson's only radio interview, given on Detroit radio a few months before he died in 2002.
A fan posted the 27 minute audio and added visuals for YouTube.
Stinson's writing partner Gerald Donald is alive and still an active musician--his comings and goings are documented at the Drexciya Research Lab blog.
Eventually Stinson/Donald will be recognized as important American musicians working outside the academy (along with Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Frank Zappa...)
The fact that they are "all electronic" will be a stumbling block in our granola music culture.
Stinson talks like the classic outsider in the interview. He speaks of isolating himself from the influence of other people's music, staying in his studio working, exploring inner space (as opposed to Sun Ra's outer). He also makes the classic outsider dodge of not describing the music or his intentions for it. People will always interpret it their own way, the music speaks for itself, etc.
Yet he is not the Howard Finster of music. The structures are quite sophisticated in their spare minimalism, as is the sound pallette.
"Undersea Disturbances" (which you hear in the background about halfway through the YouTube clip) could be Debussy with a thwacking beat.