Jeff Mills to retire The Wizard alias

The Detroit techno icon says “The Wizard is a historic concept that will indefinitely rest.”

In an interview with Beatport, Jeff Mills says that after the mixed reviews of his eclectic closing set at last year’s Movement Festival in Detroit, he has decided to retire “The Wizard.” Mills has used The Wizard DJ alias since the 80s, back when he played wide-ranging sets as a guest on The Electrifying Mojo’s show on WJLB radio.

“I thought it went well, but from what I heard afterwards many people were not satisfied with hearing an eclectic set, or at least an eclectic set from me. This was unfortunate to hear because Detroit had always been a place where the mixing of music styles was common—and infamous for. There were not many places that I can play as The Wizard outside of Detroit and the surrounding areas because certain tracks had to be recognized and highly noted by those who remember them in context from when they were first heard and introduced on Detroit radio in the 1980s. I sense there weren’t many people of that age or generation attending [Movement] last year, so as a clear indication to the way things have progressed, The Wizard is a historic concept that will indefinitely rest with last year’s festival.”

Last year, a host of The Wizard’s early DJ sets made their way from cassette to Soundcloud, but it appears that they have returned to the ether (with one exception). Watch part of the DEMF closing set in question below, in which The Wizard plays dance music touchstones ‘Planet Rock’, ‘The Percolator’, and plenty in between.

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