Brooks Mosher – Mass Transit review

With just a few EPs under his belt – although one of them was with Szare from Horizontal Ground – it would be easy to overlook Brooks Mosher amid the deluge of new releases appearing every week. However, a few things speak in his favour. Firstly, Mass Transit is out on Dolly, an imprint whose owner Steffi is a paragon of good taste in house and techno, as a label owner, DJ and latterly as a producer.

Secondly, Mosher is from Detroit. Naturally this fact alone is nothing to get excited about, but when one considers the rise to prominence in recent years of Motor City house producers like Kyle Hall, Marcellus Pittmann and Patrice Scott, another new name is always worth listening. In this instance, it was a chance worth taking. While it takes some artists a lifetime to define their sound, Mosher’s music has arrived fully formed and ready.

The common theme on this four-tracker is the strength of his basslines. Clearly inspired by the surging power of Drexciya and the raw primitivism of Omar S with a healthy dose of nagging acid, it’s the basslines that make this release so strong. It also helps that on “Jupiter Attack” the driving hats sound like they’re sparring with the resonating low end, or that the title track forges a new middle ground between Detroit house trackiness and the swing of Chicago. It’s not all rhythm-based functionality though and both “CIP” and “InterMetro” show that Mosher is capable of turning his attention to musical leanings, with his powerful rhythms providing the backdrop for outer space acid blips and rich, mournful chord progressions. Sounds like there’s a new star in town.

Richard Brophy