Diviniti
“Find A Way”
Women-on-Wax
At first listen, Diviniti’s house vocals are very un-diva, with lyrics that err on the precious side. But her musical surroundings, provided by feminist/M-nus producer Minx and local musician turned house-producer savant PirahnaHead, bring the proceedings to another level. Perhaps it’s Minx’s mix, with its minor-keyed basslines that allows Diviniti’s persona to be heard, that Body & Soul’s Danny Krivit is hearing — he just remixed the record for King Street in NYC.
Abe Duque featuring Blake Baxter
“What Happened?”
white label
On this single, produced by Equadorian-via-NYC Carlos Abraham Duque, ’80s/’90s Detroit-techno booster Blake Baxter gets to ask this taunting title question of New York, Sonar, Trax — and any club he can think of — all over an incredibly punchy acid-house line. The other tracks follow similar paths with Baxter lasciviously intoning, “I like it when you do … this,” over dirty, dirty house sine waves. Sinful, man.
Omar S.
“Detroit #1″
Oasis
This one-sided, reverse-playing, limited edition, white label, with markered-green lettering, submerged dungeon-disco beats, pressure-valve releases, and anime-inspired one-sheet comes from the mysterious Omar S., a producer who has begun to crop up on Detroit labels like Subgroundz. This release officially makes Omar the 2004 underground house it-guy of Detroit. (You can get more information by e-mailing [email protected].)
Carleton S. Gholz is a freelance writer for Metro Times. E-mail [email protected]This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2004.