FLASH YOUR LIGHTS: THE MUSIC OF THE ELECTRIFYING MOJO by V/A

What has happened to the motor city post riots of 1967, a city which originally was designed for 4 million where only 1 million nowadays remain, where something unique and extraordinary has occurred instead of what every other city has, Detroit has space and its not just empty space full of the artifacts of the American industrial revolution but a place like no other where its provides food for peoples imagination. Forever in the hearts and minds of the people of Detroit, The Electrifying Mojo broadcasted his radio shows on a nightly basis from the late 70s and throughout the 80s inspiring a whole generation of musicians, producers, DJs and music listeners. Born Charles Johnson, in Little Rock, Arkansas was a one man American radio legend. Based in Detroit, Michigan and through musical and social enlightenment he single handedly guided a generation of music-lovers in Detroit and throughout southeastern Michigan and Canada and is often attributed with the development of Detroit Techno Check!The trio of artists widely cited as the founders of Detroit Techno, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May have all made mention of Mojo's influence on their musical direction, as have second generation Techno artists like Eddie 'Flashing' Folkes, Anthony 'Shak' Shakir, Richie Hawtin, Carl Craig etc. Mojo was an early supporter of the Detroit Techno sound, playing tracks like Cybotron's (Juan Atkins) "Cosmic Cars," Derrick May's "Strings of Life" and "Good Life" by Kevin Saunderson's Inner City. He introduced or broke many artists into the Detroit radio market, including Prince, The B-52's, and Kraftwerk, and on one occasion Prince granted Mojo a telephone interview following his sell out birthday concert at Cobo Arena on June 7, 1986, at a time when Prince rarely gave interviews. He was visited in the studio by The B-52's and The J. Geils Band with the latter thanking him for playing "Flamethrower" from their album Freeze Frame. Mojo's seminal radio show ran from 1977 through the mid-1980s, and while broadcast on stations marketed toward the African-American market, his programming was an inspired blend of the best soul, funk, new wave, and rock that defied standard radio industry formats and genres. After serving in the Air Force, Johnson attended the University of Michigan in the mid-1970s where he began broadcasting on the University radio station and then on Ann Arbor station WAAM (at the time a popular Top 40 station). In 1977, he began broadcasting on WGPR (107.5) in Detroit and soon gathered a diverse audience attracted to his "genre bending" format. Moving to WJLB around 1982, Mojo gained additional listeners at the more easily found 97.9 frequency and billboards throughout Detroit touted the "Landing of the Mothership" at 10pm every night. Often Mojo would stop the music to talk, sometimes for half an hour or more, about whatever was on his mind, also taking live phone calls on the air about any given subject. Along with giving extended airtime to the new local sounds in Detroit, Mojo continued to embrace electronic music from techno and electronic music pioneers around the world like Philip Glass, New Order, Yellow Magic Orchestra and Afrika Bambaataa in his sets. At other times, Mojo would spend the last 2 hours of his show showcasing live mixes on two turntables, by bringing in local DJs to do the same. One such DJ, Jeff Mills, began his career with Mojo as "The Wizard.