Drexciya were formed in 1989 but only began to reach a larger audience in 1993 when they were signed to legendary Detroit techno label
Underground Resistance for their second release 'Bubble Metropolis'. Drexciya not only crafted an entirely unique and hugely influential sound aesthetic - combining electro, techno, industrial and new wave influences - but also created an strong mythology for the group, communicated through their releases' themes, artwork and liner notes. Despite the attention the project received, Drexciya successfully remained to stay anonymous for much of the group's existence, significantly adding to their mystery. Drexciya combined a faceless, underground, anti-mainstream media stance with mythological, sci-fi narratives, to help heighten the dramatic effect of their music. Their name referred to a myth comparable to Plato's myth of Atlantis, which the group revealed in the sleeve notes to their 1997 album 'The Quest'. "Drexciya" was an underwater country populated by the unborn children of pregnant African women thrown off of slave ships that had adapted to breathe underwater in their mother's wombs. Reports of Drexciya's disbanding in 1997 were contradicted two years later when a new Drexciya track appeared on the Underground Resistance compilation '
Interstellar Fugitives', followed by three more Drexciya albums on
Tresor and
Clone. Although both members of Drexciya remained completely anonymous throughout their active recording career, one member, James Marcel Stinson, was identified posthumously in 2002, after he tragically died of heart complications at age 32.