K. Hand

Detroit History is the latest production by the queen of Detroit-style techno, Kelly Hand. With the exception of Derrick May and Juan Atkins, no one else epitomises and sustains the scene so succinctly. This is the music that the techno intelligentsia from Europe and elsewhere look up to and try to emulate. The sounds and beats on this album are powerful and trembling with energy; playing this music at a club would not do it justice so much as playing it for a mass audience like at the DEMF, to which this CD pays tribute. Hand's tracks on Detroit History are not the static loop progressions common in most house music, rather they are a series of rhythmic metamorphosis. For instance, "Security" sounds like two different tracks going on - a pure shape shifter in sound. From the outset, queen Hand let's her sounds evolve, tempered on one side with a mechanised, urban feel but invested with enough soul to give it buoyancy. "CPOP" would be a case in point, with the tight rhythms and bright-as-day keyboard lines. Though the sounds are traditionally Detroit, the arrangements on Detroit History Part 1 are fresh. Kelly Hand is one of the few artists that could establish tech-house as an eminent art form. A portion of the proceeds of this CD also goes to Selma's Home, an emergency shelter for HIV/AIDS/drug addicted children.