How A Small Town Record Store Quietly Released An Exclusive Aphex Twin Record
Working away from a cultural capital comes with significant upsides.
by SCOTT STERLING
Well beyond the obvious tropes of Motown, techno and hip-hop icons, evidence of metropolitan Detroit’s reputation as a music city could historically be found within the confines of its record stores. Legendary and sadly long-gone record shops in and around the city were often nearly as important and influential as the music sold in them.
Today, a new crop of budding independent record stores is taking the torch for new and innovative music in southeastern Michigan, none more interestingly than Technical Equipment Supply, which recently made its home in an unlikely place.
Ypsilanti, Mich., is a small Midwestern town of less than 23,000 residents, 36 miles from Detroit and situated just a few miles east of Ann Arbor. “Ypsi” still retains much of it’s mid-20th century charm, and has yet to get caught up in the waves of gentrification sweeping cities across America, primarily in what’s known — both positively and derisively, depending on who’s doing the talking — as “New” Detroit.