What Does Techno Mean to the Artists of Movement Detroit 2015?

On Memorial Day weekend, Detroit's Hart Plaza hosted the annual Movement Detroit, an essential techno festival happening this side of the Atlantic. Movement—or DEMF, for the purists—caters to the particular and somewhat picky tastes of techno and house heads with a lineup that comprises both local legends and an illustrious crop from Europe. Each year, artists pay their respects for the Motor City, whose contribution remains one of the most important in dance music's history, to date.

Whether it's at the festival's holy grounds or the superb after-party circuit that surrounds it, Movement Detroit maintains its authority on techno year after year. This year, THUMP spanned Movement Detroit, searching for the answer to one question: "What is Techno?" Asking to define anything in dance music often warrants snarls and cues defensive answers from traditionalists. But techno means a differently to different people, so we asked the who's who of techno for their own personal definition of the genre that has, in some ways, defined their careers and lives.