Stone Owl – Sweaty Disco Balls EP

Label: Thoughtless MusicScore: 8/10

Stone Owl are Detroit duo Jake Greba and Eric Novak, renowned for their sumptuous missions on labels including Trapez, MBF, Affin and Thoughtless Music. Their sound goes beyond minimal cliches to land in the unique-to-Detroit world of infinite space and haunted eeriness, like they’re creating sound paintings of their beleaguered home city’s unearthly ruins.

The title track is deep and dreamy, peppered with Motor City funk, shimmering keyboard globules and melodic ghosts. Three remixes sympathetically build on the basic skeleton; Toronto producer Murr’s Farming Dub is dark and aurally distended, a template further built on by the booming metronome of Keith Kemp’s gripping Zoner Mix, recalling Robert Hood’s excursions into this area. Detroit’s Ataxia piles in with claps, prowling synth clouds and cavernous ambience with extra dialogue and bombed-out skyline shards.

The pair’s starkly expansive ‘CBD’ and hallucino-rubble shuffle ‘Seven Sisters’ complete a monolithic package for Detroit devotees.

Words: Kris Needs