Music / Business & brands
Daniel Bell
born 1967 · minimal techno DJ and producer
Minimal techno pioneer who moved to Detroit, recorded with Richie Hawtin as Cybersonik and ran the Accelerate label and 7th City distribution.
- Born
Sacramento, California
age 59- Also known as
- DBX · Cybersonik
- Detroit years
- early 1990s–2000
- Field
- Music, Business & brands
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Daniel Bell was born in Sacramento, grew up outside Toronto and moved to Detroit, where he joined the circle around Richie Hawtin's Plus 8 label. For three years he and Hawtin recorded as Cybersonik, whose raw acid-techno tracks were among Plus 8's early successes. In 1991 he started his own label, Accelerate, and as DBX released stripped-down records of bleeps, minimal house grooves and eerie voice effects, such as “Losing Control” (1994), that became foundation stones of minimal techno. Influenced by Chicago house and by the minimalist composers Steve Reich and Philip Glass, he preferred groove and space over volume. In November 1994 he set up 7th City Distribution in Detroit to get small American techno and house labels into shops at home and abroad; as the number of independent US labels shrank, he closed it in 1998. In 2000 he moved to Berlin and released the mix CD The Button-Down Mind of Daniel Bell on Tresor.
Highlights
- Recorded as Cybersonik with Richie Hawtin on Plus 8.
- Founded the Accelerate label in 1991; records as DBX.
- Ran 7th City Distribution in Detroit, 1994–1998.
- Mix CD The Button-Down Mind of Daniel Bell (Tresor, 2000).