Detroit Underground US Vinilo y CD

Review: We will likely never know what it is that makes the underground electronic scene in Detroit so fertile and unique. Whoever appears from the Motor City, they seem to have their own unique sound but one that very much gets with the historic aesthetic of the 313 area code. Enter Derek Michael who keeps up that tradition with this excellent six tracker on Detroit Underground, which arrives on nice coloured wax. His take on house end techno is deep, raw, unhurried. His drums stay low on 'Cruise Control' while the grinding bass locks you in and unsettling synths hang in the air above. 'No U Turn' is heavy and lumpy with off-grid chords adding to the loveable wonkiness.

Review: Some sonic communities grow even in isolation, in the lonely obsessive moments in the studio as time melts away. Deep inside the Detroit Underground nests a Berlin underground, chasing those resonant shared sounds. DU Berlin draws together some of that love felt through music in the German capital. It's not the wild city of reunification or *Berlin Calling* or tourist-style movies or the easyJet set. This is the side of the city that endlessly romances machines for the sheer joy of it, as The Allegorist titles her track, "until dawn." And with some big names and emerging, ranging from mainstays to veteran agitators, the Berlin DU crew have telegraphed each other through productions and mutual inspiration. The results vibrate and rumble with sympathetic frequencies, but never limited to grayscale or dithered palettes.