Tags: Detroit House

Review: Theo Parrish is one of those characters who manages to unite lovers of both house and techno, indeed producing offerings that seem to make the distinction utterly redundant. How does he doe it? Well, if this pair of new tracks are anything to go on, it's the simple trick of making tracks that combine the soufulness and rootsy earthiness of house with a trippy sense of the futuristic and psychedelic that elevates them out of the ordinary.
Take, for instance 'In Motion's simple piano stabs and the subsequent off kilter groove that builds up around them. Or, equally, the cheeky bass keyboard manoeuvres that form the backbone of 'Don't Play' featuring Ava, funky enough to be Stevie Wonder but then matched with caustic, scything hi-hats that have more than a hint of the surreal and robotic about them. Best of all, it doesn't feel like a compromise, it feels like a full on creation that acknowledges both traditions but refuses to follow either slavishly.

Review: Theo Parrish is a world-renowned name in the global Detroit house and techno game, and he's thrown a fascinating curveball as the latest entrant for the acclaimed DJ-Kicks series. Mr. Parrish has gone above and beyond the duties of most invitees - rather than just licensing tracks from his favourite artists and big-name-friends, he's asked his own community from Detroit to each produce their own mixable tracks, exclusively for the comp. What's more, these are hardly established names - they're organic connections to Parrish, not occupying the top layer of attention and recognition. Bits from H-Fusion, Jon Dixon, Donald Lee Roland II, Ian Fink and Raybone Jones all dominate this anarchic new deconstruction of the otherwise exclusivist mix series.

Review: classic 2010 Theo Parrish album Sketches back in stock on CD.

Review: Omar S adopts a new style for his new Side Trakx project. Detroit house meets sample based hip hop... and it really works. Possibly inspired by the passing of the late Jay Dilla, this music is perfect for relaxing and kicking back, or even warming up the early hours of the club. While Detroit hip-hop producers already proved that there's a mutual creative interaction between the cities house, techno and hip-hop scenes, it's now one of the cities hottest house producers laying down some smoked out, next level instrumentals in the vein of the late genius Jay Dilla, Madlib or Underground Resistance's Hipnotech sublabel.

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: Six new tracks from Detroit's deep house hero Theo Parrish mark his most significant release since the Wuddadji album three years ago, based around the 18 minute dancefloor epic 'Dance Alone' and the Afro-slanted 'Cleo's Theme', closing in on 11 minutes, alongside a host of other cuts of varying sizes and types. 'Real Deal', for instance, is a beatless instrumental interlude consisting of organ and Spanish guitar, while the title track is nearly all off-kilter beats. Parrish's approach, as ever, is soulful and funky enough to keep house fans on side, while also being so raw and stripped down that techno fans love it too and this has plenty of both.

Review: In the nicest possible way, Weirdo is a perfect way to describe the music that comes from the mind of Theo Parrish. The Detroit badman has his own set of rules and they are constantly being re-written. His Sound Signature label is home to most of his work and that is where he lands here. The title tune is a rickety house workout with heat-damaged chords vocal mutterings and that grinding mechanical groove that is all his own. 'Original Weirdo' ups the ante with skittish drum patterns and more intense vocals while 'Imaginary Thugfunk' is a fusion of jazz keys, shuffling beatdown drums and dustiness.

Review: French label D3 - which when pronounced in French sounds like their word for Detroit - is a decade old and celebrates the milestone with a special three-part EP series. As has always been the case over that 10 year period, the sounds it serves up are deep and housey. This various artists affair kicks off with AsTreJinkins' slow and propulsive 'Terror' before some nice airy and live sounding broken beats from New Digital Fidelity. Moroka picks up the pace with some hi-tek soul that sounds straight from the Motor City and Byron The Aquarius shows off his mastery of the keys again with a dreamy deep cut 'Tua Su Ra'. Nico Lahs shuts down with a heavyweight beatdown in the form of 'It's Spelled BARI.'

Review: Theo Parrish is a world-renowned name in the global Detroit house and techno game, and he's thrown a fascinating curveball as the latest entrant for the acclaimed DJ-Kicks series. Mr. Parrish has gone above and beyond the duties of most invitees - rather than just licensing tracks from his favourite artists and big-name-friends, he's asked his own community from Detroit to each produce their own mixable tracks, exclusively for the comp. What's more, these are hardly established names - they're organic connections to Parrish, not occupying the top layer of attention and recognition. Bits from H-Fusion, Jon Dixon, Donald Lee Roland II, Ian Fink and Raybone Jones all dominate this anarchic new deconstruction of the otherwise exclusivist mix series.

Review: Japan's Freedom School Records has been home to legendary artists like Kaidi Tatham, Rick Wilhite, IG Culture, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Eric Lau, etc. For the fourth in the DJ Series of 12s, Freedom School welcomes Detroit's Julion De'Angelo. With previous releases on Meakusma, Tone Log & Sound Signature, Julion continues to cultivate his heavy sound rooted in the Black American experience. From funky bass lines, driving percussion & soaring strings, the depth of emotions can be heard throughout these pandemic perspectives.

Review: Meeting Point bring us four slices of moody but musical experiments from the point at which broken beat and bass culture meet. The slow motion of skeletal skank of 'Brass Beat' shows that the duo are capable of tempting plenty of character out of their machines, while 'Morning Air', with its highly pitched synth glories and stop start drums, also show they're not in the least bit bothered about fitting into existing genre frameworks. Fascinating stuff.

Review: Byron The Aquarius (Byron Blaylock), from Birmingham, Alabama, debuts his latest EP for French Synchrophone sublabel Phonogramme, 'Dey Know Vol. 1'. Topping up an already hugely impressive backlog of releases on the label recently - from the likes of Abacus, Steeve O'Sullivan and Vitess - the producer and water carrier adds to their catalogue for a varied scrubdown of the more militant ends of techno's sonic politic. An impressove sense of variation is achieved on the expositionally minimal 'Black Is Black', which contrasts greatly to the ensuing space-quagmires of 'Dr Devil' and then the crude, bleepy and frank analog sonics of 'Real MF From The Avenue'. Dreamy narrations of local life abound, precluding the closing 'Rock That 808!!!', a track that is far more sophisticated and well-developed in sound than its wilfully blase title might suggest.

Review: Blair French is the next quality artist to make their debut on the increasingly vital MotorCity Wine imprint out of Detroit. He brings hints of Balearic as well as signature smoky deep house from the 313 to his work here. 'Ancestarians' (Physical Mix) also has pan-African influences, jazzy melodies and rich organic percussion while the Spiritual Mix is all about going deep into ambient bliss. 'Champagne Kiddie Pool' then looks even deeper into the musical niches of South America with dembow rhythms overlaid with lively claps and cosmic chords. Last of all is 'Sandbox Fossils with driving bass from James Simonson and guitar from Ryan Gimpert.

Review: Having dropped his Lagarius album earlier this year, Detroit mainstay Gary Martin is back on his Teknotika label with a collaborative EP with fellow Motor City legend Javonntte. The story goes that Martin had planned a break from the studio, but instead wound up connecting with Javonntte to lend his considerable keyboard talents to one of Martin's beats, which wound up in two different versions of 'The Infinite Time', now found on the B-side of this single. In both mixes, Javonntte's keys soar high and Martin's beats move with a broken flex that only adds to the jazziness. A-side track 'Zurvan' came after, balancing the record out with an Eastern-tinged melodic scale which gives the record an enchanting, mysterious quality.

Review: Mother Tongue sure knows how to serve up some beautifully escapist and Balearic sounds and that's exactly what we have here with this seductive new 12" from Tiombe Lockhart feat. Georgia Anne Muldrow. This welcome return to the label from Lockhart comes as a teaser ahead of her new album Going Forth By Day. On this evidence, it's going to be a real doozy because 'An Osirian Dream' is utterly angelic. The vocals soar to the heavens next to celestial melodies over a gentle rhythm. Also included a beatless version and a couple of T's takes which get more jazzy.

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.

Review: Akka & BeepBeep is a new label from the US that is dropping its first two EPs simultaneously on Valentine's Day. Joradesilver is behind one, and also feature sin collaborative mode on this other 12". It opens with 'King David', a hi-tek house sound with soul drenched pads and tightly programmed drums and bass. 'Mango Strut' slows right down to dubbed out house with clattering percussion and the sound of spacecraft, then 'June Buggy' gets funky with more twitchy cosmic synths and a nice organic house groove. 'Callin' Dybbs' is a deep and smoky closer for the backroom with a sublime sax line drifting throughout.