Tags: Detroit House

Review: It would be fair to say that Studio K7 has pulled off something of a coup in getting Kenny Dixon Jr. to agree to compile and mix the latest installment in the long-running DJ Kicks series. It is, somewhat remarkably, the legendary Detroiter's first commercially available mix set. This triple-vinyl edition features a whopping 19 cuts - all in unmixed form - from the 30 track mix. Musically, it's a blazed, jazzy, soulful and groovy as you'd expect, and contains a mixture of downtempo beats, nu-jazz and hazy house cuts from the likes of Flying Lotus, Dopehead, Peter Digital Orchestra, Nightmares On Wax, Soulful Session and Lady Alma.

Review: There is a heavyweight selection of names on this first release from Norm Talley's promising new label Upstairs Asylum. Firstly, the man himself is a Motor City heavyweight who links with fellow luminary Omar S on the opener 'Muggy Detroit Heat.' It's an intense and steamy house track that bristles with raw melody. On the flip, French house icon D'Julz reworks a tune by Norm in cahoots with the one and only Moodymann. This one is all cuddly chords, romanic vocal chops and warm, rough edged house beats for those cosy basements.

Review: Peacefrog Records' Japanese offshoot is currently serving up reissues of Moodymann's various classic albums of the late '90s and early 2000s. The series has now reached 2000's 'Forevernevermore', the legendary Detroit producer's third full-length excursion. Beginning with the hypnotic, locked-in Afro-house of 'Meanwhile Back At Home', the set sees Moodymann flit between weirdo interludes ('Wednesday Night People'), analogue-rich beatdown wooziness ('The Set Up'), hybrid deep house/techno eccentricity ('Track 4'), revivalist disco/jazz-funk (the superb 'Don't You Want My Love'), ultra-deep house ('Your Sweet Love', the awesome 'Tribute'), dusty gospel-house ('The Thief That Stole My Sad Days (Ya Blessin Me)'), and the kind of jazzy, thickset deep house brilliance that has always been the producer's stock-in-trade ('Forevernevermore').