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Album Reviews
Album Review: Various Artists – Fabric 45: Omar S – Detroit (Fabric Records)
By Paul Vig | Published on Monday 9 March 2009
Who offers to add to one of the finest club mix ranges in the world and uses ONLY tracks made by themselves, and originally released ONLY on their own record label? Either an arrogant fool or someone who’s pretty damn sure they make good tunes.
Detroit’s Omar S has put his head above the parapet and I was lining up to take a shot, but having listened to his entry to the Fabric compilation series, there’s no need to take him down. Omar S aka Alex Smith grew up on 60s Motown records and caught the producing bug in his teens after discovering the burgeoning Chicago house scene. These days he operates in a niche inside a niche, sitting on the techno side of tech house, and runs the FXHE label.
After the silliness of the intro, ‘Polycopter’, we get on track for a great mix – from the tech of ‘Flying Gorgars’ and ‘Strider’s World’ this man has been influenced by videogames for sure. ‘Oasis 4’ takes it deep tech, ‘Crusin Conant’ is a tad dull, but ‘U’ is awesome with some soul chants thrown in on a tune that leans heavily on Joey Beltram’s seminal ‘Energy Flash’ cut. ‘1 Out Of 853 Beats’ is a bit too introspective, and ‘Simple Than Sorry’ gets overly mechanoid on us, but it soon picks up with his dazzling ‘Psychotic Photosynthesis’, which is reminiscent of Ame’s lush melodies and epic grandeur. Then he takes us soul with ‘The Maker’ with its strong AfroAmerican feel female vocals, which shows great diversity. His ‘Oasis 1’ has a stonking tribal beat to it, and ‘Blade Runner’ has a definite tech-noire feel, then into US garage beats with ‘Day’ and rounded off with soul lyrics in ‘Set Me Out’.
All in all I’d love to have been able to slate this CD simply for the quote in the press blurb where Omar stated: “Over the last year I haven’t really been feeling anybody’s music, there’s been no music that I feel. I don’t need other people’s music; I got over 100 songs released”. But listening with open ears this is a well crafted mix, and I’ll have to admit that Omar S does have talent. PV
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