Sonic reducer

As we sit here pondering the filth and the fury of the next five days, we pause to reflect. And daydream in reverse. It's been 11 years since the parties within the parties began to roll in and around Hart Plaza. That was 2000, long ago and far away in techno years. Life tends to move very quickly when you're living it loud, at 150 beats per minute, on a concrete dance floor with 1,000 other bodies. One year feels more like three or four or five at this speed. No wonder I feel like I'm that baby who becomes an old man within seconds in the final frames of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

But living in the future music, man, still feels good, nonetheless, because it is good. No, make that great. Nah, try awesome.

That's 'cause Movement, Detroit's electronic music festival, assembles much of the world's top DJ and live performance talent for three days of sonic assault on five stages, all just a splash away from a main waterway of the Great Lakes. Feel the breeze?

Not to mention dozens of off-site parties that take you farther away from the water (unless you're bashing on a boat at 5 a.m. — and some of you will), beginning Thursday and finally burning out some time Tuesday morning. Flip the page and find our bleary-eyed but carefully curated guide to afterparties.

It is all part of a celebration of a scene that revolutionized (in part, let's not get too carried away) society and culture by applying various technologies to dance music. Simple as that? Yes, basically. The fundamentals of the way we move together were altered by the synthesis of sound and human energy. And nowhere were they applied with as much dedication and sheer force of will than in Detroit. That force has proved sustainable for going on 30 years, an impressive number in actual time measurement. In techno years, that's about as long as General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have been making cars. Golly, that's a long time.

So once again, greetings one and all and welcome to Detroit, a place that has survived the bloom and wither of industrialization and survived the end times prognosticated for last weekend as well. It'll take more than mere rapture or apocalypse to bring us down.

And hello to all our friends from New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Johannesburg and elsewhere who would rather be here than anywhere else on the planet. Your judgment is correct, your decision inspired. Ever heard the one about the shape of things to come? Here it is. You've made it. This is it: May 28-30, future-now time once again. Detroit! Let's go!

Officially, this edition of the festival (once called DEMF, Fuse-In, and then Movement since 2006, when Ferndale-based promotions and production team Paxahau took it over) begins Saturday afternoon and runs until late Monday night.

Elsewhere in these pages you'll find select artist profiles, a guide to the parties and interactive art. Not to be overly redundant, but it's always nice to present an overview of the anticipated mayhem from a centralized source. That would be me, one who has anticipated and experienced every one of these cyclonic events. Here are some spotlighted picks, day by day, stage by stage:

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