The Answer Is In The Beat

v/a: Submerge Sessions Volume 1 (Submerge, 2025)

August 24, 2025 at 1:44 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

This newly released comp from the Submerge/UR family spotlights newer artists from the Detroit scene, along with a few more established names who have been releasing music for a while. Most of these tracks are more abstract electro and techno, there aren’t many conventional club bangers here. Some tracks proceed into gradual elevation, like the opener by Indira Edwards, and others inhabit a deep, specific space in the mind, like the skeletal electro beats and detached atmospheric sounds of Sugar’s “Machine State No. 12”. Huey Mnemonic has one of the more driving, muscular beats on here, and Shawescape Renegade blasts off into the outer quadrants. There’s also a bonkers track by Mechanatura, aptly titled “Sineshredder”, which sounds like a robot being thrown into a spiralling wormhole. Last time I went to Submerge I found a cd-r by this artist consisting of a single 80-minute track in the Little Free Library outside the building. Kamau Baaqi has another one of the more experimental tracks here (though it’s much slower), and I didn’t even realize until now that this is the same artist who used to record as Darling Farah, and that he was from Detroit. Tenko is another name to watch, his track is more sublime and breakbeat-driven, perfect for afternoon cruising while still surging with machine funk. Earther’s “Digi Dust” is a hazy downtempo comedown with fast, intricately flickering blips and more relaxed, atmospheric pads.