http://www.freep.com/article/20110829/FROMPRINT08/108290418/Journalist-
shared-Detroit-s-techno-music-world
Journalist shared Detroit's techno music with world
Aug 29, 2011 |
BY B.J. HAMMERSTEIN
Before the Motor City became home to Movement, there was Dan Sicko, the
pioneering journalist who provided one of the world's first definitive
looks at the exploding underground electronic music scene.
Mr. Sicko died of ocular melanoma, a rare form of eye cancer, Sunday at
his home in Ferndale. He was 42.
Mr. Sicko worked as a freelance writer for magazines such as Urb and
Wired and released the acclaimed book Techno Rebels in 1999.
Really, I know this is a serious statement, but he was the first guy
who legitimized Detroit's techno history, Jason Huvaere, director of
Movement: Detroit's Electronic Music Festival, told the Free Press on
Sunday. Now, the world is drowning in Detroit techno coverage. But
before that, there was Dan, who not only understood the history of the
city and electronic music, but he was the historian who put it all down
on paper.
Mr. Sicko, who wrote Techno Rebels after being inspired by the
experimental underground scene he witnessed firsthand in Detroit during
the 1980s, went back to documenting artists such as techno's founding
fathers Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson after the
popularity for the genre and its Motor City roots soared to new
heights.
In 2010, through the Wayne State Press, Techno Rebels: The Renegades
of Electronic Funk was released, an expanded and cleaned-up second
edition that explored in even greater detail Detroit's role of shaping
techno.
John Cathel, best known as DJ Powdr Blu, said Mr. Sicko paved the way
for DJs and fans alike.
He might not have been a programmer, but through his language, as a
writer, he played all the right keys, Cathel said.
Sicko's wife, Amy Lobsiger, said that she and her 11-year-old daughter
Anabel are extremely grateful for the support that has been shown to
them both financially and spiritually through
www.mattsicko.blogspot.com . It's there that Lobsiger details the
challenges Mr. Sicko and his family faced while fighting cancer,
including medical costs.
I was always interested in Dan's work before, but over these last few
days we're now starting to grasp the impact he had, she said.
This whole thing has been mind-boggling, a real stinker, Lobsiger
said of the 2008 diagnosis. But the community has been so supportive.
It's really meant a lot to us.
Lobsiger said the Dan's Story Web site will continue to be used to
keep people informed and that Dan's co-workers at the marketing firm
Organic, where he was an assistant creative director since 2005, are
looking into developing a Web page for his book.
As of Sunday evening, Lobsiger said funeral arrangements at St. James
Church in Ferndale are still pending. She said visitation likely will
be at Spaulding Curtin in Ferndale on Wednesday.
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http://blogs.metrotimes.com/index.php/2011/08/city-slang-rip-dan-sicko/
City Slang: RIP Dan Sicko
August 29, 2011
By Brett Callwood
We are saddened to learn today that writer Dan Sicko passed away on
Sunday, having battled ocular melanoma, a form of eye cancer, since he
was diagnosed in 2008. He was just 42.
Sicko was a freelance writer with publications like Wire, but hell be
best remembered for his book, Techno Rebels. In it, Sicko documented
the story behind the pioneering Detroit electronic music scene, while
profiling the cast of notable characters in the scene. It will stand up
with time as a book that tells an otherwise untold tale.
Personally, I remember Dan, myself, plus Gary Graff and Tom Weschler,
doing a joint book signing at Record Time in Roseville. Sicko was
signing Techno Rebels, while I had my MC5 book, and Graff and Weschler
their Seger book. It was an odd combination of books, but all covered
Detroit music and all were published by Wayne State Press. We had a
blast, and Ill remember Dan Sicko fondly.
He is survived by his wife, Amy, and their daughter Anabel. City Slang
sends our love and best wishes to Dans family and friends.
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/genre/dance/dan-sicko-detroit-music-
journalist-techno-1005331982.story
Dan Sicko, Detroit Music Journalist, 'Techno Rebels' Author, Dead at 42
August 29, 2011
By Billboard Staff
Dan Sicko a Detroit-based music journalist who chronicled Detroit's
techno music died Sunday (Aug. 28) from ocular Melanoma at his home in
Ferndale, Mich., according to the Detroit Free Press.
Sicko, may be best know for his book Techno Rebels: The Renegades of
Electronic Funk (1999, Billboard Books), one of the first books to
chronicle in-depth the advent and rise of techno music in Detroit and
beyond. As Sicko wrote about the book, now in an expanded second
edition, on his Tehcho Rebels site, when it was originally published
Techno Rebels became the definitive text on a hard-to-define but vital
genre of music.
He also worked
