International recording artist ALTON MILLER touches down on the Progressive Underground
Alton Miller
On tonight’s Progressive Underground, we interview Detroit-based international recording artist ALTON MILLER and play selected cuts from his discography. We also explore the outer reaches of electronica through the genres of deep house, techno, future soul, b-sides and rare grooves. We go from 8-11 pm EST on 101.9 WDET and wdet.org.
ALTON MILLER BIO
Growing up in the 1970s, Miller soaked up the musical environment surrounding him in the Motor City, taking a particular interest in the sounds of Motown, Philadelphia, Parliament-Funkadelic, and Santana. It was during the early ’80s once the “dance music crazed” Alton became friends with a young Derrick Maythat he decided to start spinning records, citing Chicago DJs such as Ron Hardy and Frankie Knucklesas prime influences.
By the latter part of the same decade, Miller joined forces with George Baker andChez Damier to start the Music Institute, a short-lived but legendary Detroit club that has since become near-mythical, thanks to the pioneering techno efforts of figures such as May. Following the demise of The Music Institute, Miller took an interest in Conga drumming in addition to DJing, which led to a period between 1989 and 1991 where he toured the world with his music.
He then joined forces once again with May, first as an employee of the artist’s Transmat Records label (he also played bongos at Silent Phase‘s early shows), then as Aphrodisiac, the title under which he would begin releasing his music. Besides his EP on Transmat’s sublabel Fragile, he also released his music on Kevin Saunderson’s KMSand a series of EPs on Serious Grooves.
By the mid to late ’90s, he had increased his presence in the Detroit area through a number of DJ performances and a stream of stunning twelves. His debut album for Distance has been highly acclaimed as all things house. His current peacefrog album ‘Stories Of Bohemia’ is a powerful, moving collection of mature jazz tinged, soulful house grooves with flavours of African and roots music.
