MUSIC PREMIERES
Detroit’s annual house and techno festival Movement announced the phase one lineup for its May event on Wednesday (Dec. 11).
Leading the bill are John Summit, who will be playing a festival closing set on Monday, May 26, English favorite Jamie xx, techno titan Anfisa Letyago, techno pillar Carl Cox playing one of his hybrid live sets, U.K. drum and bass bosses Chase & Status, Detroit legend DJ Minx, white hot U.K. producer Sammy Virji, Detroit trio HiTech, Palestinian techno artist Sama’ Abdulhadi and many more.
“I’m stoked to be playing Movement for the third time and now, closing out the festival,” Summit said in a statement. “I’ve attended as a fan for years and the energy and support this city and crowd bring is always special. It’s an honor to be a part of such a legendary event.”
Movement 2025 will happen at its longtime home in Detroit’s Hart Plaza May 24-26. Tickets are on sale now.
Movement is produced by the Detroit-based Paxahau, which took over the festival in 2006. The event is known for focusing on the city’s homegrown techno genre along with house music, and has long championed rising stars, especially local ones, from each genre.
“One of the great things about [Paxahau’s] culture is we aren’t goal-focused, but direction-focused,” Paxahau Founder Jason Huvaere told Billboard in 2023. “It’s always been about the trajectory, the journey, the emotion. It’s never been about, ‘I need to get this thing done,’ or ‘I need to get this thing acquired.’ For the future, I just want to preserve that.”
See the complete phase one lineup below.
MUSIC PREMIERES
Four years on from the ‘Actual Life’ series lifting him into the mainstream spotlight, Fred Again.. continues to feel unavoidable. The London producer and DJ born Fred Gibson has moved at a relentless pace, bouncing between sold out stadium dates in New York and surprise appearances at Sheffield’s 1,000 capacity Forge, while also making history as the first electronic artist to top the bill at Reading and Leeds in 2024.
Where the ‘Actual Life’ releases and his fourth album, 2024’s ‘Ten Days’, leaned into warmth and joy pulled from ordinary moments, Gibson has also sharpened his instinct for high impact club weapons rooted in garage, dubstep and jungle. That side of his output lives on ‘USB’, an “infinite album” first imagined in 2022 as a home for tracks that exist outside any fixed universe, including defining moments like ‘Rumble’ and ‘Jungle’.
‘USB002’, the second vinyl only chapter of the ‘USB’ project, brings together 16 recent tracks, many of which surfaced gradually on streaming services over a ten week stretch. The music was shaped live, in step with ten unannounced DJ appearances across the world from Dublin to Mexico City. Even with a Glastonbury style registration system in place, The Times reported that 100,000 people tried to secure tickets for the opening night in Glasgow.
Appropriately, ‘USB002’ feels alive and constantly in motion, helped along by contributions from close collaborators such as Floating Points and Sammy Virji. The rigid, techno driven pressure of ‘Ambery’ echoes elements of Floating Points’ 2019 album ‘Crush’, while Gibson’s take on ‘The Floor’ builds like the slow climb of a rollercoaster before dropping back to earth without warning.
The guest list stretches beyond the usual dance circles, with two Australian guitar bands popping up in unexpected ways. ‘You’re A Star’ reworks Amyl and The Sniffers’ ‘Big Dreams’ into a breakbeat driven rush, while ‘Hardstyle 2’ pulls the experimental post punk edge of Shady Nasty into an Underworld adjacent space alongside Kettama. Gibson’s real trick is his ability to connect with anyone. These tracks are not reinterpretations but full takeovers.
The visual world wrapped around the ‘USB002’ rollout reinforces the instinct behind the music. Phones were prohibited at shows staged in vast warehouse spaces under sweeping light rigs, while Gibson’s team shared striking black and white footage and created artwork for each single on site. Bottling that sense of urgency, the project is rooted in the thrill of the present moment, something Gibson seems able to summon simply by turning up.
If the ‘Actual Life’ series and ‘Ten Days’ captured passing snapshots of experience, ‘USB’ is defined by constant movement, a space where boundaries are removed entirely. Sitting somewhere between an album and a playlist, ‘USB002’ underlines why Fred Again.. feels so dominant right now, and suggests that his current run may only be the beginning of something much bigger.
