"This future shock manifesto [The Third Wave] sees the third-wave technological future not as a cocktail of 1984 Numanoid nightmares and Robocop lawlessness, but as a place where man can harness the hardware to work for him. The nightmare of a brave new world where man is slave to machine and robots call the shots has no place in this book. Alvin Toffler, like Kraftwerk, is not afraid of the pocket calculator and if he knew of them, it’s likely the academic would approve of Model 500, Rhythim Is Rhythim and the positive futurism behind them. The music they both make is not afraid of the future and the view they project is as complex, as contradictory and as plausible as the future world of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Detroit’s electronic music community don’t fear the robot. Unlike Gary Numan they look forward, incorporating all the technological advancements Roland and Yamaha can come up with in to their uniquely innovative music. Unlike the ironic acid causalities of Chicago or the scratch fanatics of New York, they have no interest in old records, obsolete equipment or scratch science. They are the techno rebels – musical agents of the third wave who see the fusion of man and machine as the only future." — NME, 1988

"The techno rebels are, whether they recognise it or not, agents of the third wave. They will not vanish but multiply in the years ahead. For they are as much a part of the advance to a new stage of civilisation as our missions to Venus, our amazing computers, our biological discoveries, or our explorations of the oceanic depths." Alvin Toffler – The Third Wave. "We’re not really interested in tearing you up with the scratches and cuts tonight. We’re most interested in … educating you for the future." Derrick May – WJLB Radio mix. "A fan of futurologist Alvin Toffler’s work, Atkins saw Detroit as the first post-industrial city, ready to embrace the bright technological future that lay ahead of it. Using inexpensive analogue equipment in their DIY downtown studios, the Belleville Three pioneered a sound characterised by a 4/4 beat, funky bassline and futuristic sound palette – “like George Clinton and Kraftwerk stuck in an elevator”, as May memorably described it. They made the early techno records quickly, collaboratively and more or less anonymously, releasing them under a number of aliases without much hope of commercial success."