FXHE US Vinilo y CD

Review: After more or less owning 2011 with a surprise album, a collaboration with urban crooner Colonel Abrams, an ahead-of-the-game reissue of Marc Kinchen and the all-conquering "Here's Your Trance Now Dance", FXHE don Omar S kicks off a new year with Wayne County Hills Cops Pt 2 (where, we ask, was Part 1?), a hook-up with the mysterious OB IGNITT. The eponymous A-Side is characterised by the kind of glistening synths last seen on "Here's Your Trance...", with a rugged analogue bass line giving the track with the requisite bump. A tired cliche it may be, but this could easily soundtrack an 80s cop movie: clearly Omar has this in mind given the 12"'s title and the fact the record's centre label features a doctored image of Eddie Murphy from Beverly Hills Cop! On the flip, Omar S provides his own remix, drowning the synths in dubby textures and showering them with shuffling hats for a more heads-down take. Another killer 12" - business as usual at FXHE, then.

Review: Omar S sets his considerable dancefloor skills to something a little different on a new 7" featuring the vocal talents of TroiAlexis. A young talented Detroit female songwriter who was discovered by Omar S at the Conant Gardens Party Store when she sung acapella to him at a Hi Tech party, TroiAlexis lends an air of soulful class to Omar's trademark electro-slanted electronics on both sides of this single. There's a stripped down - and we mean stripped right down - bass heavy R&B mix on the A-side, while the flip has a sturdier house mix that still gives her voice room to soar.

Review: FXHE reissue this 1996 house classic by Marc Pharaoh.

Review: Alex "Omar" Smith has covered all bases this year, offering up singles that flit between more experimental, off kilter fare, head-nodding beats informed by hip-hop culture and the unique blend of Detroit deep house and techno that has long been his stock-in-trade. His final single of 2019 sees him gleefully charge further towards disco pastures with "Another Man", a bouncy, club-ready house workout that peppers a good-time disco groove (think rubbery slap bass and crunchy drums) with spacey synth sounds, twinkling melodies and male spoken word samples ("I can quite understand... she left me for another man"). He's back on deep house mode on flipside "Suv's AKA Fatass Mobile's", where a drowsy riff and sustained synth strings bob along atop a sea of sweaty machine drums.

Review: Following his impeccable album Norm-A-Lize last year, Detroit's City Boy Player returns to Alex O Smith's FXHE imprint with five more soul-stirring sessions. "Foundation" lives up to its name with a classic spoken sample and 11pm mood-changing struts, "Detroit 2 Step" has a touch of the Bonobos with its woozy oboes over lightly swung, organic drums. "Fan Ta Cee" flips the mode for something a lot deeper and darker (think Theo's classic remix of "Falling Up" and you're not far off) while "Consciousness" is a cool creative percussive tool with a swooping rise that sweeps and dips in all the right places. Finally we're sent packing with the bold chord-striking piece "Friday Night". If this doesn't have you marching, nothing will.

Review: With this four-track EP, Alex 'Omar' Smith welcomes fellow Detroiter Norm Talley back to his FXHE label for the first time since the release of his 2017 debut album "Norm-A-Lize". The quality threshold remains high throughout, from the brilliantly bass-heavy Motor City deep house futurism of EP opener "The Runner" - all booming sub, swinging machine drums and looped space synths - to the jazzy deep house bliss of closing cut "Starz". In between you'll find the similarly enjoyable, Theo Parrish-esque jazz-house drums and glassy-eyed musicality of "I'm Feelin' Hot" and the sparse dancefloor dreaminess of "Twi-Lite".

Review: Detroit scene stalwart Tink Thomas returns with what we think is his first single under his given name since 1996. Here he showcases his sneaky remixing and re-editing skills, serving up a quartet of homemade, drum machine-driven disco revisions that have probably been staples of his DJ sets for some time. The weightiest of the bunch is bustling, redlined opener "Come On, Come On (Playa Choice Mix)", though both the Melba Moore-sampling "Dancin' (Detroit Disko Dub)" and stomping "Do It Together (Renny Raw Mix)" sound like proper peak-time workouts. The baggy-but-bouncy "Close To Me (Werk On Me Edit)" may be the best of the lot.