When people think of techno they may think of the bass-thumping industrial parties of Berlin, but the first metallic glimmers of techno began in 1980s Detroit, perhaps as early as 1978, from a demo tape of sounds created on a Korg MS-10 synth by a young Juan Atkins.

Atkins, then 16 and still yet to become the "Godfather of Techno" through his pioneering work with Richard Davis in Cybotron and his solo project, Model 500, was living with his grandmother in the Detroit suburbs.

Inspired by the fat synths of songs like Parliament's "Flashlight" (which Atkins said sounded like "UFOs landing on records") he convinced his grandmother to buy him an MS-10 for Christmas.

"The Korg MS-10 was incredible for weird, UFO-type sounds and effects," recalled Atkins fondly in a 2012 interview with MusicRadar. "It was just a monophonic keyboard, so you couldn't even play chords on it. I would sit for hours on that MS-10 just making sounds… I had a great time."

Known as the little brother of the then-underappreciated, now-iconic MS-20, the MS-10 was part of Korg's legendary 1978 MS Series—an entry-level, compact, 32-key semi-modular analog synth originally released for less than half the price of the Minimoog.

Entering the Spaceship (Atkins Meets Davis)

Using two cassette tape decks and a PA mixer, Atkins began recording demo tapes of full songs he had created with the MS-10. The songs were, in his words, "out there."

By then he was 18, and, having recently graduated from Belleville High School, he brought the demo tapes to one of his music classes at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor.

"Everybody in the class loved these demos," said Atkins in Jacqueline Caux's 2017 documentary Never Stop: A Music that Resists. "And everybody wanted to hook up with me because of that."

The demos caught the attention of Atkins' classmate and fellow outlier synth enthusiast Rik Davis, with whom he would create what many regard as the world's first techno (or at least 'proto-techno') songs under the name Cybotron.

Davis was a private person, a Vietnam vet then in his late '20s who had suffered greatly from the ravages of the Vietnam War, and from Detroit's racist urban renewal policies. He was from Black Bottom, a once predominantly African American neighborhood in Detroit that had been entirely demolished to make room for a freeway.

Upon returning home after the War, Davis found he had nothing to return to. Detroit was economically depressed and racially divided, and every home he had lived in as a child was gone. He dedicated himself to music as a source of catharsis and social commentary, and much of his perspectives and experiences worked their way thematically into Cybotron's tracks.

Although 10 years older than Atkins, Davis shared a visionary love of electronic instruments, sci-fi, and futurism. His favorite bands were Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Morton Subotnik, Giorgio Moroder, Ultravox, and Tangerine Dream.

As Atkins told Spin, when he first visited Davis' house in Ypsilanti, he felt like he had entered a spacecraft. "It was during the day, but it was dark— the blinds were closed. The only lights you could see were coming from the keyboards. It wasn't really consumer gear—the stuff you could see anywhere. They had these LEDs. It looked like an airplane cockpit."

While it's possible Davis had rare studio equipment, Cybotron's earliest recordings were created using at least some consumer gear: Davis' 1975 ARP Axxe, his then-newly purchased ARP Odyssey (though which revision of the Odyssey he owned is unclear), a Korg vocoder (presumably a Korg VC-10, as this would have been the only Korg vocoder available at the time), a DR-55 drum machine, and a TR-808.

ARP & The First Cybotron Releases

Just as the Odyssey was a scaled-down version of the 2600, the Axxe was a scaled-down version of the Odyssey.

By the time he began working with Atkins, Davis had already purchased an ARP Axxe after being inspired by the soundtrack for Dario Argento's 1977 horror classic Suspiria, and had used the Axxe to produce his first record, 1978's "Methane Sea"—a fizzling primordial psychedelic electro song that a famous DJ, The Electrifying Mojo, had used as an opener for his hugely influential radio show, The Midnight Funk Association.

Like the Korg MS-10, the ARP Axxe was a one-VCO, "budget-friendly," monophonic analog synth still capable of fantastic sounds. Although the Axxe had fewer features than the Odyssey, the Axxe's single-oscillator saw and pulse waveforms could be used simultaneously to create the feel of a dual VCO.

Cybotron & The Boss DR-55

As for percussion, it's likely both "Cosmic Raindance" and "Alleys of Your Mind" featured one of Atkins' favorite drum machines, the classic analog Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-55.

Released in 1980, the DR-55 only had four voices—nare, kick, rim shot and hi-hat—but it was important for being one of the first step-write-style programmable drum machines, and for being extremely easy to use. The DR-55 had 16-step drum patterns and an additional two 12-step patterns, which allowed for 3/4 and 6/8 rhythms. (It was also a favorite of New Order, who used it on 1981's Truth.)

Detroit Discovers Cybotron—The World Follows

After The Electrifying Mojo began playing "Alleys of Your Mind" on Detroit airwaves, Cybotron became a success, releasing three more iconic singles, 1982's "Cosmic Cars" (which bumped Prince's "Little Red Corvette" down to #2 on a Detroit local chart), the iconic hit "Clear" (later sampled by Missy Elliot), and 1984's classic "Techno City."

Atkins left the group in 1984 because of creative differences, and went on to form Model 500 and Metroplex Records, releasing several songs that solidified him as a techno pioneer, while Davis remained in Michigan, eventually releasing two more Cybotron albums, 1993's Empathy and 1995's Cyber Ghetto, fulfilling the band's contract with Fantasy Records.

It wouldn't be until 2019 that Cybotron would play its first-ever live show—this time with Atkins as the only original member.

"If you come to see my live shows, you'll see that now I'm using a Novation," Atkins told Attack Magazine. "It's a new keyboard and it's got some good sounds, is easy to get around, plus it's got a vocoder on it."

"Other than this, I've been getting into a lot of virtual gear, plugins... There's so much stuff, you can't get through it all."