- Eye Teeth, the sub-label of Detroit's Interdimensional Transmissions, has thus far solely been devoted to the work of Israel Vines, a Michigan native whose roots in the Detroit-area dance scene stretch back two decades. Though he's lived in LA for some time, he retains the spirit of parties such as Realism, his no-frills night in Lansing, MI, that hosted the likes of Robert Hood and Dan Bell well before the turn of the century. His latest for Eye Teeth, Gatekeepers, is a master class in deep Detroit music, running the gamut of electro, techno and the disembodied tones Rod Modell built his career on.
As on the first Eye Teeth release, WWKD, Gatekeepers' title track subverts typical 4/4 formulas—it's Detroit talkbox electro as reinterpreted by aliens. The Speak & Spell voices are distorted beyond recognition, but the other elements—charging kicks, subtly undulating hi-hats, creepy synths—display a near microhouse-level of precision. The instrumental version of "Gatekeepers" lets the frustrated funk shine free of its bizarre vocal. This robotic weapon tips its hat to early Metroplex, Aux 88, Drexciya and Eye Teeth founders Ectomorph.
"Unscathed" is more in line with the pulsing, hypnotic techno favored by fellow LA residents Droid Behavior, working itself into roiling, bell-laden peaks. "Repose In Dub" stands in opposition to "Gatekeepers," but it's just as good. Put simply, it's an ambient track that wrings as much foreboding atmosphere as possible from one chord. The mission statement for Eye Teeth wants to "see American Techno evolve"; on Gatekeepers, Israel Vines uses his serious knowledge of overlooked strands of midwestern electronic music to go beyond canonical repetition.
TracklistA1 Gatekeepers
B1 Unscathed
B2 Repose in Dub