Kyle Hall – The Dirty Thouz EP [Wild Oats] | Kaychunk/You Know What I [Hyperdub]

Two pretty different releases from the young Detroit producer: The Dirty Thouz EP on his own Wild Oats imprint takes a route down the almost lo-fi clockwork techno avenue, a retro leaning spectral take on the Detroit techno sound, full of soul and rolling glitchy hip-hop-esq beats. While the Hyperdub offering is a more straight up techno effort but with a twist.

The Detroit axis of vaguely new artists from the aforementioned Kyle Hall to Omar-S have reunited my love for techno, which has been on the wane slightly in favour of dubstep, UK funky hybrids and hip-hop beats over the last few years at least. These guys almost sound like the Detroit equivalent of what Burial is to garage and dubstep. They channel the ghosts of their cities dance music past, keeping it slightly elusive and a tad nostalgic while still pushing it in new and interesting directions. But Kyle Hall and Omar-S aim more squarely at the dance floors while they’re at it.

The two KMFH tracks from Dirty Thouz, ‘I'm KMFH GIRL!’ and ‘Luv 4 KMFH’ show Kyle at his most soulful and sparse, with woozy winding synth lines and bleep funk bass tones over winding beats that feel like they’re warping like they’re being played off a broken tape deck. They balance soulful warmth with a haunted machine like skeletal existence brilliantly. They fit somewhere between 80s b-boy electro, the twisted hip-hop soul of J Dilla and the ghosts of Detroit’s past.

The opener on the Hyperdub 12”, ‘Kaychunk’ is a rolling techno affair, twisting and flexing in an almost garage-like fashion but sticking pretty firmly to Kyle’s deep funk drenched techno. Bleeping lead lines and squelching bass that really brings the boogie is the flavour here. Reminiscent of DaM-Funk at times but in a KMFH state of mind at all times. But it’s ‘You Know What I’ that see Kyle Hall playing with a dubstep tempo and creating a lush, synth funk techno track that meets somewhere between the purple funk of Bristol or LA, the deep lush techno of Detroit and the spaced out bass-soul of London’s dubstep sounds, its an unexpected and very welcome twist. Both 12”s show a unique side to his productions and re-affirm his one to watch status.

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http://www.myspace.com/kylehalldetroit
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Darkstar – Aidy’s Girl is a Computer/Kyle Hall Oats B So Good Remix [Hyperdub]

Finally it’s landed, ‘Aidy’s Girl is a Computer’ first emerged sometime last year, I first heard it in Oneman’s Generation Bass mix on Radio One and it stuck in my head right away. Since then every set that it’s graced its stood out, no one quite sounds like Darkstar. The twisted melodic 8-bit vocoder garage sound of last years ‘Need You’ on Hyperdub turned a lot of heads inside and outside the scene they even got props from Radiohead who let them re-interpret ‘Videotape’ for the Mary Anne Hobbs Wild Angel Compilation. This 12” also features the talents of Kyle Hall a young producer from Detroit who like his mentor Omar-S makes a raw no nonsense house in the tradition of many Detroit producers before.

The original is a chiming, rolling, bass-pulsing garage joint with some serious digital soul. Apparently it came about when one half of Darkstar tried to make their computer sing and spent so much time with it that they may as well have been seeing each other. The tracks full of melodic 8-bit sprinkles, smeared synth sounds that come out sounding like a deeply twisted accordion of sorts, and an almost anthemic yet subdued melancholic feel. There is a beating heart and soul to this production, when the breakdown melts its way in there is some real emotion. Darkstar make songs that just so happen to work in the club just as well as they do elsewhere. It’s probably a contender for track of the year if such award existed.

Kyle Hall’s Oats B So Good Remix twists the original into a tracky deep Detroit number, all punchy kicks and dubbed out chimes, there is a blissed out hypnotic feel with the synth lines being morphed into gentle pads rather than smeared squiggles. The warm digital p-funk bass really makes this track as does the g-funk bendy synths and when all the elements are in full effect there is an almost psychedelic air to it. House is in good hands with Kyle Hall and his ilk.

This 12” is essential and bridges the gap nicely between the 5 years of Hyperdub compilation and the full album Darkstar have in the works, which is pencilled in for release sometime next year and bound to get them a lot of attention. But for now savour ‘Aidy’s Girl is a Computer’ in all its digital soul splendour.

www.myspace.com/hyperdub

www.hyperdub.net

http://www.myspace.com/darkstar001

http://www.myspace.com/kylehalldetroit