Back catalogue: Techno (All)

Review: Word on the street is that Alister is the next big thing to come out of the Motor City. The song writer and producer must be hotly tipped, frankly, because the one and only Omar S has taken him under his wing and recorded and mixed these two new tunes, which are tasters from his full length album to come in the spring. They bare all his hallmarks too - crunchy, dusty drums, rugged chord vamps and prickly perc. 'Starlight' is all that with an added vocal, while 'Matador Beach' is more trippy and nocturnal, with a delicate falsetto lost in pinball melodies and ricocheting hits.

Review: Luke Hess delivered a stunning, dub techno masterclass with this rather unexpected gem on the FXHE label back in 2017 with fellow Motor City great Omar S on production. The superb title track opens with shimmering dub chords and hypnotic rhythms that evolve slowly but powerfully. 'Renewal' offers a more direct approach by channelling the spirit of Brendon Moeller's Beat Pharmacy. On the flip, 'Sacred' strips things back with a staggered groove, airy pads and a one-note bassline circling deep into the night. Closing track 'Motor Dub' nods to Deepchord with its swirling delays and spacious, bass-heavy mix. For fans of Basic Channel and immersive, textured techno, this is irresistible.

Review: It is hard to believe this EP is now more than 15 years old, because it certainly doesn't sound like it. It is one of literally hundreds of Omar S tunes that has more than stood the test of time for the way it so beguiling blends cold machine sounds and mechanical rhythms with irresistible synth craft. 'The Further You Look The Less You Will See' is all low-fi low end minimalism and glowing melodic warmth. 'Tecky Alexander' is a playful take on that with jittery rhythms and poppy melodies that allow your mind to wander and get lost in the subtly shifting loops. Perfection.

Review: As he often tell us himself in his track titles, no one does it quite like Omar S. Even listening back to his earliest material from 20-odd years ago, it still sounds fresh and like no one else, which is why it's time to get excited about a bunch of reissues we're got hold of. 'Track 8' is an EP from 2004 with two brilliantly, beautifully raw house cuts that typify exactly what Smith is all about. The first one is eight minutes of scruffy kicks and brushed metal drums with eerie and alien melodies snaking their way through the beats. The second one is very similar in style with even more rawness and an unsettling but intriguing melody.

Review: Shadow Ray is best known in house music circles as the co-producer of the Oasis 1, 13, 13 1/2 and 14 releases with Omar S, although he is also well known to the Ryan Correctional Facility for more nefarious reasons. The Detroit-based producer has spent the past four years at Ryan earning not only a hard knocked life but a trade in Sound Engineering. That was until Alex Smith (aka Omar S) made a presentation to the facility's parole board to commission a remix of his recent hit "Here's Your Trance Now Dance" as part of Ray's work release program! Rumour has it the parole board was inhabited by at least one old school house head, and we're delighted to see Alex's idea come to fruition, with Shadow Ray really nailing it with this remix. Staying true to original's shimmering melody, Ray opts to bolster the bottom end with a raw bassline that creates a nice, fat rolling groove.

Review: FXHE has been brimming with activity in recent times, with a steadfast flurry of singles refusing to let the quality drop, and now the big bossman delivers another two slices of finely cured business in his inimitable style. The lead track is an arresting piece with just a kick to drive proceedings, leaving ample room for a haunting array of bleeps and a 'speak & spell' vocal until the track slowly ramps up with some more prominent drum programming. "Mayall II" on the flip is a less tense affair, with a cheery string refrain and old school jack-in-the-box beats disseminated in a plain and simple fashion.

Review: No-one embodies the sound of Detroit quite like Omar S. The badman beatmaker has been touring out his idiosyncratic jams for more than two decades and rarely ever misses. Right now we've got a bunch of restocks of his earlier works landing and this one is from right back in the early days of his FXHE label. It opens with the wonky acid and whistle madness of 'Polynesia' then take sin the clunking, mechanical house of 'Churchill', scratchy sounds and wispy synths of the experimental 'Micronesia', low slung house sleaze of 'Frontwardsflip' and phased and drunken bassline madness of 'Nikademas'. Superb.

Review: The more Omar S material we get onto our shelves, the better off we all are. We love him, as you probably well know. The Detroit misfit has this knack for making simple house and techno sound rich and full of soul. That's not to say that he can't lay down some roughness and, in fact, that's exactly what we love about him. This EP, in particular, is one we've been wanting for a while' it's Alex O Smith at his damn best the whole way through, providing the dirt and the shine simultaneously. "Blown Valvetrane" is an absolute beat of an EP, a classic Detroit killer with an FX-drenched percussion, a simple drum machine groove and a whole heap of supreme nastiness - an absolute winner! "Busaru Beats" is a murky, distorted monster that lays in the shadows of its more aggressive A-side sibling, and "Deep Valve Cover" provides that classic Omar S hit; a joint that'll blow your mind with its utter simplicity and shady demeanour. SICK and BACK IN.

Review: The Detroit badman always delivers the goods, but he'd recently focussed on his more house-centric style thanks to a series of sleek, soulful releases. This time, he's come out all guns blazing with this new four-part killer, led by the absolutely nutty groove that is "Sink Holes" - a proper slice of Omar S acid, delivered in fine style and with his inimitable rawness. "HELL ON EARTH" is a moodier, funkier house tip with a jazzy side, while the flipside's "Hit It Bubba (I Want My Dadda's Rekids!!!!)" is a fast, upbeat house bomb with a crazy little disco sample that floats amid the grainy bass drums. "Party Marty" is a no nonsense kind of lick, pouncing away with a steady, yet unmistakably Omar S-style percussion, and a heavy bass blow. This is one hell of a way to make an appearance this early in the year - highly recommended!!

Review: Detroit's cult house champion dropped the original version of 'Another Man' back in 2019, but as with all his music, it is pretty hard to age it on the sounds alone. The title cut is a perfect example of his style - low-slung, undercooked beats that hit hard but with soul, a superb vocal sample well chosen and well deployed and some fuzzy, lo-fi synth warmth. 'SUV's Aka Fatass Mobile's' then strips things right back to thronging chords and pressured beats that feel like they will drown you but never do. As essential now as ever.

Review: Detroit heavyweights Omar S and Theo Parrish link up for a one-track release that lives up to its bold title. 'The Grand Son Of Detroit Techno!' stretches over ten minutes of raw, hypnotic movementidusty drum programming, looped keys and a low-slung groove that simmers with intent. Omar S keeps the arrangement locked and heads-down, while Theo's unmistakable fingerprints surface in the swung percussion and deep jazz-inflected textures that evolve across the track's longform structure. It's a meeting of minds that feels completely unforced, rooted in lineage but defiantly forward-facing a release that speaks in fluent Motor City dialect without ever turning nostalgic. Unapologetically stripped, functional and soulful.

Review: The unique thing about Omar S's music is that no matter how much later you listen to it after its initial release, it still sounds mad futuristic. His dusty grooves and otherworldly synth sounds take on many different forms and atmospheres and for this one back in 2010 it was all about occult cosmic worlds. 'Kosmos 1402' has rickety kicks and hits that spit and fizz with grit and grime, while 'Plesetsk Cosmodrome' then sinks into deep astral worlds with rubbery bass bouncing beneath warped pads and 'Skynet 2 B' has a more playful feel with cute chords and a nice skipping rhythm.

Review: The second part of Omar S' You For Letting Me Be Myself album in vinyl form sees another 8 tracks across four sides of wax; aside from the '80s inflected sounds of the album's title track, the 303 workout of "Ready My Black Asz" finds itself with the dubbed out loops of "Messier Sixty Eight". As a bonus for those who already have the album, this part contains two vinyl exclusive tracks; the soothing deepness of "She's Sah Hero Nik" and the delayed organ weirdness of "Broken Bamalance Horn" - both more than worth the price of admission alone.

Review: It is no secret that we here at Juno HQ are huge fans of the one and only Alex 'Omar S' Smith. He is a machine when it comes to making music and barely a year goes by without another expansive new album form the Detroit badman. Here comes this year's and it has all the things you would hope for and expect: raw, unfussy but infectious house with dusty drums and 80s synths. Supercoolwicked is a frequently appearing guest who lends these tunes alluring vocal touches while the grooves themselves are subtly, effective tweaks on Smith's tried and tested template. We are here for it.

Review: Omar Alex Smith's development as an artist is such that these days, it's hard to predict what he'll put out next, musically speaking. Can't Change, his first album for two years, is a great example of this. While there are examples of his trademark hypnotic, driving, heavily electronic Motor City house sound (see 'Whale Sex', 'Inner Love' and the acidic 'My Momma and Ned Say You Don't Have To'), these rub shoulders with tracks that more expressly explore his different inspirations, as well as nods to Detroit musical history. The results are predictably impressive, with our picks including the jazzy, soulful and sun-kissed dancefloor pressure of 'Virgil', the mutant R&B/hip-hop of 'Bend Who', revivalist piano house sing-along 'Start This Over Again' and a jaunty workout featuring vocals from UR's 'Mad' Mike Banks ('Miss Hunn'ayy').

Review: Six brand new shakers from Omar S...This is the sh*t! Never confined to one particular genre, Omar is again blending house, techno and even minimal styles into one big pot of deep Detroit underground funk. There's even some Basic Channel / Deep Chord vibes going on there somewhere. Simply killer.

Review: Oasis Collaborating is the name of two different double albums that Omar S and Shadow Ray put out under their Oasis alias back in 2005. They are both hugely original and essential works of stripped back Motor City house music perfection. This one is packed with gems like the wispy pads and metallic synths of 'Oasis Fifteen', the low slung rawness of 'Oasis Seventeen' and the brightly, optimistic melodies and twanging chords of 'Oasis Twenty Five'. Each of the tracks sounds like they were recorded live, with two masters of their machines just jamming away, tweaking knobs and cooking up pure house magic.