from “le détroit” · the strait
Sherard Ingram became DJ Stingray as Drexciya's touring DJ, and he has carried the fast, masked electro set out of Detroit and across the world ever since.
Sherard Ingram has been a Detroit constant in electro and techno for decades, and most people now know him by the name James Stinson gave him. Ingram became DJ Stingray as the touring DJ for Drexciya, the masked electro duo Stinson built with Gerald Donald. The name stuck, and so did the work.
Ingram grew up in Detroit and learned to play in the city's late-1980s and early-1990s scene, in the same circle as Kenny Dixon Jr., who records as Moodymann. He started Urban Tribe, a loose Detroit collective that has at points pulled in Anthony Shakir, Carl Craig, and Dixon Jr. The project sits between Detroit electro and the city's deeper house and techno traditions, which is part of why it gets cited as a bridge between those worlds.
The Drexciya connection set the template for the solo work. Stinson handed Ingram the Stingray name and a mask, and Ingram has kept a mask on stage ever since. He has been plain about what it does. "This ain't no comfort blanket, teddy bear type of thing," he told DJ Mag. "When this goes on, it's all business." After Stinson died in September 2002, Ingram dropped the "Drexciyan" prefix and has performed as DJ Stingray, or Stingray 313, since.
What sets the sets apart is speed. Stingray mixes fast, leaning on electro and high-tempo selections rather than the steadier four-on-the-floor pace that anchors most techno rooms. The records carry the argument, and they tend to run quicker and harder than the floor expects.
The release schedule has run through Tresor in Berlin alongside labels like WeMe and Micron Audio. His most recent record under the name is the INDUSTRY 4.0 EP, out on Tresor on September 20, 2024, a set of tracks built around automation, robotics, and machine learning, per his own Bandcamp page. Twelve-inches and EPs have continued at a steady clip across his catalog.
Ingram has been based in Berlin for years, a move he has tied to being closer to where his music draws its biggest crowds, and his calendar is built on the European club circuit. The Detroit roots stay in the work even as the home base moved.
He remains a familiar name on Detroit's Memorial Day weekend. Paxahau booked Stingray for Movement 2026 at Hart Plaza, where he is set to play a back-to-back set with Berlin's Ellen Allien on Saturday, May 23, per the festival's published lineup.
One dispatch a week. No tracking, no filler. Free, always.