from the LP Tronic, Fat Beats Records, 2008I guess I’ve always had something of a love affair with Detroit (albeit, I have never had to actually live there), something about that mesmerizing ghetto sprawl that makes even the most hardened New Yorker or Los Angelino open there eyes wide in shock, producing some of the fiercest tunes and musical trends of the last 50 years and yet shunning the accolades of non-residents, championing the concept of fierce localism to an extent rarely experienced outside of small neighborhoods or surf breaks; I remember going to raves in Detroit where 30 or 40 cars would get broken into, on a good night! Obviously, something about that dark edge has helped to concoct zeitgeist defining music from every decade, from the proto-punk of the MC5 & the Stooges to the acidy skronk of Funkadelic, from the very foundation of techno music in the ‘80s to, more recently, some of the headiest instrumental hip-hop beats since the golden era. Although the magic Dilla produced, rest his soul, will be near-impossible to move beyond, fellow Motown kid & quasi-protégé Curtis ‘Black Milk’ Cross does his damnedest to make the master proud; as with Dilla, soul music provides the vast majority of samples herein, particularly strong on the strings, and Cross has improved at least moderately in his flow over the years…really though, I’d suggest seeking out the instrumental bootlegs, but that’s just me…
