Motor City Drum Ensemble: DJ-KiCKS
Hearing the name Motor City Drum Ensemble evokes images of marching band drummers coming together in Detroit to play some music. The truth is, Motor City Drum Ensemble is one man, Danilo Plessow. Plessow is the latest artist to curate a volume of the legendary DJ-KiCKs compilations.
What has made the DJ-KiCKS series so successful is the wide range of electronic artists they have gotten to curate the compilation. Recent volumes have been curated by dance-punk artist Juan Maclean, IDM artist Apparat, and dubstepper Kode9. Each artist brings their own unique track listing to the compilation but none has seemed quite as varied as Motor City Drum Ensemble’s. MCDE’s track listing is all over the place. It includes jazz artists like Sun Ra and Afrobeat artists like Tony Allen intermixed with techno artists like Mr. Fingers and Aphex Twin. What is incredible is that the songs flow perfectly into one another making nothing seem out of place.
The only problem I have with the mix is that after about 40 minutes, the track listing gets dance heavy and seemingly stops mixing in other esoteric genres. This makes the compilation go out like a lamb rather than a lion but as a whole, the mix remains in the upper echelon of DJ-KiCKS comps.
Rating: 7.6/10
MP3: Motor City Drum Ensemble “L.O.V.E.”
Buy: iTunes or Insound!
Motor City Drum Ensemble: DJ-KiCKS
