Detroit may have had a hard time in the last few decades, but it has always produced some of the hardest music in America.
A lot of it is electro or techno based, cold and edgy. This would be a good way to describe this one, steeped in Detroit’s freezing Michigan bleakness.
The drums are sharp as icicles on this tune, using classic drum machine sounds. The snares are fast and snappy, the hi-hats even faster…
The rough bassline is a thing of great beauty and magnitude. It forms the centrepiece of most of the song, bar the intro and outro – which are fixated around some eerie synth strings.
The song is sparse and minimal, in classic Detroit style. But compared to their other songs, this has a certain quality to it that makes the track stand out. Probably that bassline…
“Direct Drive” was released in 1995.