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.

Kyle Hall - EXCLUSIVE fabric Blog Mix by fabric



http://www.myspace.com/kylehalldetroit
http://www.myspace.com/hyperdub

Fabric 45: Omar-S DETROIT

The next instalment for the fantastic and I must say well back on form Fabric mix series is from Detroit native and FXHE owner Omar-S. This guy is all at once a bit of a throwback and a pioneer. His productions hark back to the hay day of Detroit techno with it’s high tech soul edge yet there is something kind of new and refreshing by this approach in this day and age.

All sixteen tracks in the mix are original Omar-S productions from his FXHE Music imprint. I suppose you could compare the approach to Villalobos’ on his Fabric mix in which he pretty much made an original album that would probably be a bit lazy though. Plenty of DJ’s will play exclusives to keep their sets fresh and in demand, and Omar-S has a lot of freshness of his own that really needs some hype.

You really can hear echoes of Chicago house and Detroit techno throughout the whole mix. Tight punchy retro beats play off warm tweaked out synths in a really organic old sounding way. You can hear little quick edits and lo-fi glitches at times that just make the mix sound more human. It sounds like it could have been made any time between Strings of Life and the invention of the Gameboy.

The whole mix is a highlight to be honest but some stand outs have to be, piano led ‘Oasis 13 ½’ which sounds like a long lost E-Dancer number which then blends seamlessly into the brooding darkness of ‘1 Out Of 853 Beats’ with it’s bubbling synth lines and building beats. Tracks like, ‘Psychotic Photosynthesis’ are just irresistible and draw you in with their beautiful melancholic robo-soul chords.

Omar-S really knows how to get you hypnotized in the mix, clicks, bubbles, blips and a whole array of tricks skip around the tracks with a warm minimal sound. Then to throw you out of that collective mass all swaying to the techno beats a soulful vocal comes out of know where like on, ‘The Maker’ and makes you look around and feel that human side to the dance. It’s a living breathing beats he has managed to create here.