Biography
Danilo Plessow, a German DJ and producer, selected the alias Motor City Drum Ensemble to pay homage both to Detroit’s musical heritage and to his own roots in Stuttgart. Drawing on disco-house sounds shaped by Moodymann and Theo Parrish, he made a decisive impression on club culture in the late 2000s through a run of self-released singles later collected on the compilation Raw Cuts, Vol. 1. He also earned recognition for his wide-ranging, ambitious mixes, among them entries in the DJ-Kicks series from 2011 and the Fabric Presents series from 2021. Equally active as a remixer, Plessow has reworked material by Tony Allen, Caribou, DJ Sprinkles, and additional artists.
Prior to adopting his best-known name, he issued several recordings with Joachim Tobias under the jazzy broken-beat project Inverse Cinematics. Motor City Drum Ensemble debuted in 2007 via singles on Compost and Four Roses that fused tech-house with funk and Afrobeat elements. From 2008 onward he issued three leaner Raw Cuts singles on his own MCDE imprint. These tracks, together with further material—including a release under the Jayson Brothers pseudonym—appeared on the widely praised 2009 compilation Raw Cuts, Vol. 1. His earliest commercially available mix arrived as the 2011 DJ-Kicks installment, featuring pieces by Sun Ra and Tony Allen alongside house and techno cuts from Mr. Fingers, Recloose, and Robert Hood. More singles followed, coinciding with the formation of the ambient duo Vermont alongside Marcus Worgull, which released two albums on Kompakt. In 2016 Plessow assembled Selectors 001, an unmixed anthology of house and disco obscurities issued by Dekmantel. He maintained a global schedule of performances at festivals and clubs, culminating in the 2021 appearance of his second official mix, Fabric Presents Danilow Plessow (MCDE).
Prior to adopting his best-known name, he issued several recordings with Joachim Tobias under the jazzy broken-beat project Inverse Cinematics. Motor City Drum Ensemble debuted in 2007 via singles on Compost and Four Roses that fused tech-house with funk and Afrobeat elements. From 2008 onward he issued three leaner Raw Cuts singles on his own MCDE imprint. These tracks, together with further material—including a release under the Jayson Brothers pseudonym—appeared on the widely praised 2009 compilation Raw Cuts, Vol. 1. His earliest commercially available mix arrived as the 2011 DJ-Kicks installment, featuring pieces by Sun Ra and Tony Allen alongside house and techno cuts from Mr. Fingers, Recloose, and Robert Hood. More singles followed, coinciding with the formation of the ambient duo Vermont alongside Marcus Worgull, which released two albums on Kompakt. In 2016 Plessow assembled Selectors 001, an unmixed anthology of house and disco obscurities issued by Dekmantel. He maintained a global schedule of performances at festivals and clubs, culminating in the 2021 appearance of his second official mix, Fabric Presents Danilow Plessow (MCDE).
Albums
Singles
