It's impossible to truly capture the experience of a trip to the Detroit Electronic Music Festival. Sure, a list of acts gets across some portion of it, but there are no words to describe the electricity in the air for the annual pilgrimage to techno's birthplace. By the close of Memorial Day weekend, ears ring, muscles ache, and feet burn, but there's a whole year to recover before enduring it all over again.

While the festival proper—dubbed Movement— runs from noon to midnight, the influx of people and talent spawns an entire ecosystem of afterparties, with every club in the vicinity trying to get a piece of the action. These parties mark the unofficial beginning of the festival, with Friday night offering a preview of the weekend's events. At Bleu, the Kooky Scientist erased all memory of his underwhelming Fred Gianelli set at Oscillate a few months back. The beats were intricate and precise, but the party vibe was in full force, with girls dancing on speakers, and bartenders wearing the bare minimum. Tim Xavier kept things going with an all-too-brief set that prompted opener Derek Plaslaiko to return from his hotel to play more music after opening the night, taking things into harder, faster, less minimal territory.

Staying until the end of Plaslaiko's set meant a late arrival to the festival's first day. Aux 88 threw down classic electro at the Real Detroit stage, with the two members dressed in pressed white coveralls, surrounded by laptops and gear. Meanwhile, Pier Bucci was barely visible over the dancing audience, a very small man producing a very large sound. King Britt proved that he was definitely worthy of his main-stage slot, dropping acid and disco as part of his genre-spanning set. It was only fitting that he closed his set with "I Love Music," keeping the ravers amped for the classic and setting the stage for the eccentric Kerri Chandler. The track could be the theme song for Claude VonStroke, who fed off his adoring audience, playing his trademark style of dirty bassed tech-house, and was later spotted all weekend dancing and enjoying other acts. Kenny Dixon Jr.'s headlining appearance as Moodymann was forgettable and lacked cohesion, but Soul Skate, his label's skating-rink afterparty, was the antithesis of the festival, with Detroit's soul/funk/R&B legacy taking precedence over techno, and the skating competition and outfits becoming more surreal as the evening wore on.

The second day kept the techno onslaught coming, with moods lightened by the weather's improvement. Kenny Larkin gave a lesson in Detroit techno, dropping classic after classic. Over on the Pyramid stage, Baby Ford kept things a bit mellower, bringing more of a house vibe at the stage and working through the needle-skipping wind blowing off of the Detroit River. Misstress Barbara played records with the precision of a surgeon, proving she wasn't just a minimal bandwagon hopper as she varied her sound across more of the techno spectrum than many of her counterparts. Abe Duque and Blake Baxter continued the history lesson following Kenny Larkin's set, branching from Larkin's techno and throwing some acid and house into the mix, and providing their own distorted vocals. While the night closed with Model 500 on the main stage, it was the return of Claude Young (with Takasi Nakajima as Different World) that marked the highlight of the day. Running the laptop sources through a variety of effects, he featured the best parts of laptop and DJ performances in his set, with live elements over known tracks. The duo played "Jaguar," driving the crowd crazy by glitching it up, a performance repeated at their afterparty.

The heat set in for the last day, forcing people to find shelter under tents and trees. Three Chairs played as much for themselves as the crowd, one-upping each other with soulful deep house. The masses packed the tent for Stacey Pullen, who provided common ground for both candy kids and post-ravers with his propulsive set. Then came the big decision: Kevin Saunderson, Richie Hawtin, or Booka Shade? Kevin Saunderson kept a light mood, dropping crowd favorites, while Richie Hawtin started things off pretty heady. Booka Shade were two of the most energetic performers of the entire festival; the duo's live set is sure to top many best-performance lists—it spanned their discography and they played until the last second of their available slot. Despite his best efforts, not even the great Jeff Mills could keep that intensity up, his seven (!) audio sources being no match for unexplainable sound issues. After another all-nighter with music provided by Troy Pierce, Matthew Dear, and Michael Mayer, it was time to head back to Seattle.

Once again, the DEMF showcased not just Detroit's musical legacy, but the breadth and health of electronic music at large. In doing so, it made itself worth the days of physical pain and mental exhaustion, turning music fans into masochists longing for months to relive the most enjoyable form of suffering. DONTE PARKS

For more info visit: www.demf.com