Tags: Detroit House

Review: Scopic Records - a new UK label which aims to "bring newcomers and artists with backgrounds, regardless of their background or gender" - launches with a single by its founder New Digital Fidelity in collaboration with singer Monet. We get three nicely different mixes of 'Getting Colder' in all. The A-side is taken up by the club mix, a classic New York deep house groove with chunky pianos chords and Monet's confident vocal performance. The flip begins with the original, a slower version but still effortlessly groovy, bringing its soul, jazz, and R&B influences to the fore. US techno's man of the moment Byron the Aquarius completes the set by turning the track inside out with shuffling hats, snapping machinefunk snares and a bubbling bass, making it even more impressive by exposing its moving parts and giving them a neat polish.

Review: Jinn April is a South Korean born, now Detroit based artist who moved to the Motor City in pursuit of the music she loves. She has since established herself in the city as DJ PIA with sets at all the right venues and a cross-genre style that is the norm for the originators in the Mid West. Now comes her own self released first EP, and it's a fine one. "Heal Myself N Moving On" is raw, unapologetically rough house with hi hats, gauzy chords, wooden hits and knackered kicks all chucked into a loose mix and allowed to evolve on their own. "Somewhere Deep In My Heart" is another ramshackle mix of odd melodies and detuned jazz, while "Reincarnation" is a melange of keys and chords, occult synth sounds and icy hi hats that is purely experimental and "You Can Do It Baby" ends in similarly singular fashion. This is exactly the sort of unusualness you would expect of an artist who has established herself in Detroit.

Review: Isaac Prieto is Mexico-born but Detroit based and that is presumably where he hooked up with the Motor City's assured house auteur Javonntte. The pair take a trip through scuffed-up deep house brilliance here with the chattery claps and blurting bass of spaced-out opener 'One Take' before 'Brothers In Rhythm' is a more dance-y cut with pinging kicks and detuned synths stumbling about the mix to make for a brilliant sense of mechanical funk. 'High Energy' brings edgy chord stabs over busted beats and bass and 'Lost & Found' is more kinetic analogue madness with hurried techno hi-hats, spangled pads and punchy kicks all bringing an utterly fresh type of sound.