Omar S - fabric 45

In the post-social-networking era, an artist like Omar-S is not just a rarity, he's a treasure. The Detroit-based mastermind stands tall as a daring reminder of how things used to be, how things should be: authentic, exceptional music released on a carefully harvested grassroots label, with no attachment to hype or any incestuous "Top Friends" circles. Distributed solely off his own back, and diligently monitoring every step (even hand-writing notes on his white labels), Omar-S' FXHE imprint has become an underground cult of sorts, and his off-kilter productions bang as testament to his vibrant uniqueness. Bringing back the Detroit ethos but shaking up the formula in unimaginable ways, his music and label stand for everything the proud city represented in the past, as well as giving it a bright light for the future. Producing at such a prolific rate at an impressively young age, his style was so different that for years, the rest of Detroit didn't get it. Even now, despite his devout following and a myriad of hugely celebrated releases under his belt ("Psychotic Photosynthesis," his wondrously adventurous LPs, his collaboration with Shadow Ray as Oasis, etc), he rarely plays in Detroit and his hometown is none the wiser about the sound he's perfected. And his fan base, meanwhile, is none the wiser about the enigmatic man himself: with only two known interviews to date, looming aspects of his personal life, like his street-racing profile (a prevalent part of his Detroit life the last 14 years), have simply gone undocumented.

"My booking agent and I were talking about doing a mix for fabric over the last year, and for me, over the last year I haven't really been feeling anybody's music, there's been no music that I feel. I'd rather do a mix for fabric that's all my own shit, because there are still a lot of people out there that don't know about FXHE records or Omar-S or Oasis. I did a few different versions, remixes, of a few of the tracks on the CD, and there are about four tracks on there that haven't been released yet. I know a lot of new people will listen to it, so of course I put my important songs on there, but I wanted to make it varied and mix it the right way. That's why I mixed a lot of the songs a different way; but with the famous songs, I didn't touch those because I want the new people to hear the original. I don't need other people's music; I got over 100 songs released." Omar S - Detroit

On 'fabric 45: Omar-S DETROIT,' Omar-S provides the uneducated with a stunning, arresting portrait of who he is as an artist, as a DJ, as an outsider, as a radical in an otherwise indifferent music world. Enter the wide, unformulaic world of Alex Omar Smith, where all rules of techno and house are contorted, and no directions can ever be predicted. His complex yet austere productions build and interlock individually, in the same way they bind collectively to form a fluid, surreal anthology. Deep, challenging and all-consuming, fabric 45 is aural poetry, atmospheric bliss: put simply, a work of art.

Tracklist
01. Omar-S - Polycopter
02. Omar-S - Flying Gorgars
03. Omar-S - Strider's World
04. Omar-S - Oasis Four
05. Omar-S - Crusin Conant
06. Omar-S - U
07. Omar-S - Oasis 13 ½
08. Omar-S - 1 Out Of 853 Beats
09. Omar-S - Simple Than Sorry
10. Omar-S - Psychotic Photosynthesis
11. Omar-S - The Maker
12. Omar-S - A Victim
13. Omar-S - Oasis One
14. Omar-S - Blade Runner
15. Omar-S - Day
16. Omar-S - Set Me Out