Kevin Saunderson, Joey Beltram, and Nerea

P!nk. U2. Jimmy Carr. What unites all these artists? Few things except that they have all played concerts in the online virtual world of Second Life. However, one artist who performed their before any of them was a man with a reputation for being ahead of the times, for innovating and influencing well ahead of his time. This artist is New York born DJ Kevin Saunderson, who moved to Michigan at age nine and became one of the innovators of Detroit techno and techno music as a whole (quite a few years after that, of course), a sound that’s defined electronic music since the turn of the century at the very least. Someone with that kind of pedigree could almost understandably phone in their appearances, we’ve got enough examples of that in the world of rock and roll, but that doesn’t fly with Saunderson. His sets are propulsive, creative and utterly joyous, purpose built to send a room full of people utterly insane, no matter what music they might be into otherwise. This is a man who’s done pretty much everything you can do in electronic music, from number one dance hits to one of the most sampled bass lines in electronic music (The Reese Bassline, basically the Funky Drummer of Techno), and after that, he can sure as hell make you dance as well. Highly recommended.