KYLE HALL Vinilo y CD

Review: Detroit house hero Kyle Hall returns with his biggest project in some time in the form of Transmissions, a new double album on his own well-regarded Forget The Clock. All six tracks have enigmatic, functional titles and the music is as idiosyncratic as ever. Each one veers more towards techno than is Hall's usual style, with pulsating synth lines and tight, dusty drum tracks making for stripped-to-the-bones grooves. Later on, things grow ever more abstract with twisted acid lines screwing their way through the increasingly ragged and roughshod drums. These are perfectly imperfect jams from a master of the form.

Review: This is a welcome reissue of one of Kyle Hall's most brilliant recent outings. It came first in 2020 on the label he founded in 2019, Forget The Clock, and sounds as good now as it ever did. 'Shark' is a louche deep house jam with signature dusty drums and noodling synths, then 'Vexed' gets more club-ready with its raw drum stomps and shades of Larry Heard and Ron Trent loom large over the classy house depths of 'Distant'. 'Slam Deep' is a minimal and skeletal beat knocked out on an MPC, you imagine, with bleeping synth pulses and 'Channel & Transmission' closes out the varied EP with scruffy, shuffling house drums and popping synth colours.

Review: On Demuja's label Blueprint comes an milestone six-track EP made up of breezy, ultraviolet house tunes, celebrating the imprint's tenth anniversary in the form of a bite-sized sampler referencing a wider compliation LP. With both familiar and fresh faces in tow, we're gripped by the selection on offer: Hall's synthetic glam-funk jam opens proceedings with whistly synths, while Makez' 'Train To Saturn' accelerates towards ever-faster ends, and Basic Soul Unit's 'Souljourn' takes the B's cake with knocky, tactile *perpetuum mobile*.

Review: Kyle Hall and Steven Julien have been working together on and off for a whole decade now as Funkinevil. To mark the occasion they have pulled together their first two releases - namely 2012's 'Night / Dusk' and 2013's 'Ignorant' - on one new double album that very much sums up their raw house sound. The Detroit-London duo draw on plenty of their hometown's signature aesthetics, from well swung drums to soulful synths, and the results are still fresh sounding and captivatingly deep. Importantly, all these years later, there is still real emotional punch in these tunes as well as damn good grooves. Essential stuff from this vital pair.