DJ Assault

For all those who uphold Detroit techno with sacred reverence, DJ Assault is here to take it back to its roots in the profane. One of the leading ghetto-tech DJs in the Motorcity (and therefore the world) today, our man kicks a mix with tracks borrowing the visionary concepts of home-heroes Underground Resistance and Juan Atkins (as well as Miami bass and jungle), jacks the bpm up beyond +8 and vandalises the soundscapes with the foulest talk this side of Too Short. Amidst shout-outs to niggaz, hoes, ass n'titties and my personal favourite, booty, cartoonish voices utter absurd lyrics like "You gotta suck it/Before I fuck it" and "we won't get no radio play/But we'll probably get some pussy for this." Before we get a chance to decide whether this counts as misogyny, let alone pornography, Assault cues up a female MC (unidentified, as are all the artists here) to brag about her various labial strengths and other abilities to sweat her man's ass. It's all really hard to keep up with, lyrically and musically, but that's because this is a Detroit DJ, and like Jeff Mills, DJ Assault is a wizard on the turntables. In a session just 48 minutes in length, the man performs a spellbinding act of mixing no less than 80 tracks! For the dancers out there, it's tiring enough to bounce after ten, but for the avid listener, and the Detroit fan in particular, the instrumental tracks are a pleasure for the ears. Colourful tones, melancholic chords and twitching bass lines enter in and against the dirty voices, creating some of the most really powerful contradictions. Talk about keeping it (sur)real.