Kenny Larkin

Born in Detroit in 1968, Kenny Larkin belongs to the second wave of the local techno scene that emerged around the turn of the 1990s, following producers such as Jeff Mills and Carl Craig. He first drew attention with the track “We Shall Overcome,” released on Plus 8. Early on, Larkin developed an approach that links the rhythmic rigour of Detroit techno with a more introspective, abstract strand—sometimes likened to IDM—characterised by crisp structures, futuristic textures and a pronounced sense of space. Under his own name and the alias Dark Comedy, he circulated this aesthetic between club-oriented formats and works for attentive listening, notably with War of the Worlds (1992) and the albums Azimuth (1994) and Metaphor (1995). Dark Comedy resurfaced on Seven Days in 1997, before a discographic return in the mid-2000s with The Narcissist (2004), Funkfaker: Music Saves My Soul (2004) and Keys, Strings, Tambourines (2008). For a time in the early 2000s he lived in Los Angeles, dividing his activities between music and stand-up while remaining active as a DJ on the international techno scene.