Get locked into a Detroit groove for a second; given its pedigree as an outlet for myriad forms of London-centred bass sounds, even a year ago it would have seemed unfathomable for Motor City wunderkind Kyle Hall to release an EP on Kode9’s Hyperdub label. Arriving, as it does, at this point in the game, it seems less a surprise and more the product of an inevitable shift. As the hybrid sounds of UK funky have ushered in a renewed Detroit influence, visible notably in Roska’s recent soulful vocal experiments, that city’s sounds have become ever more audible in the DJ sets of upstarts like the Night Slugs crew. Last year, Hall’s remix of Darkstar’s glacially beautiful ‘Aidy’s Girl Is A Computer’ offered a clue – new 12” Kaychunk/You Know What I Feel is now its resolution.
In a recent interview, Hall stated that these tracks were his attempt to ‘do’ dubstep, after only having heard a bare minimum of that genre. And judging by ‘Kaychunk’s almost impossibly raw edges, he’s ‘doing’ dubstep a whole lot better than a great proportion of its traditionally accepted practitioners, setting a ratting percussive figure loose against a sea of oceanic subs and drifting synth pads. ‘You Know What I Feel’ is even better, forsaking the four-to-the-floor pace of his typical house and techno styles for a driving broken beat, all shot into orbit with the kind of deep house abstractions his mentor Omar S is famous for. And, four minutes in, just as its Sun Ra, space-is-the-place mentality becomes too entrenched, a barely perceptible edit shifts the mood to dancefloor roller. If this is Detroit ‘doing’ dubstep, then long may its denizens continue to modify our homegrown ideas.
Words : Rory Gibb
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