The Detroit Experiment The Detroit Experiment Review

Though the Motor City is renowned for giving the world techno and Motown, it's a place with a complex musical history. This project (it's a rubbish word, but it'll have to do) rubs some of the city's diverse styles together and creates a few sparks in the process.

Co-producer Carl Craig is the fulcrum here. Best known as one of the key figures in Detroit's techno scene, his recent recordings namecheck Sun Ra, Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi band. Craig's not namedropping to pick up some jazz cred, but simply paying homage to a lineage of Afro-American electronically influenced music that died a death with the advent of fusion and 90mph Minimoog solos.

An impressive lineup of jazz talent provides the raw material, including Hancock alumnus Bennie Maupin, pianist Geri Allen and violinist Regina Carter. A nice suprise is the inclusion of trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, a key figure in the mid 70s Detroit scene and member of the Tribe records collective along with Phil Ranelin. A reworking of Belgrave's classic cosmic jazz opus "Space Odyssey" kicks things off, with echo drenched trumpet riding on a slinky bed of galactic funk. Craig adds discreet, spacey electronic touches and treatments, stretching phrases here and there in 21st century Teo Macero style. Much of the other material is reconfigured from studio jams which blend open ended soloing with meaty P-Funk squelch (keyboardist Amp Fiddler was a recent member of the Parliament/Funkadelic axis) and fat, lopsided house or hip-hip grooves. Elsewhere Doug Carn's "Revelation" and Stevie Wonder's "Too High" make connections with the city's rich musical heritage (though any cover of a Stevie Wonder song is probably doomed to failure, and this one's no exception).

Despite the album's broad palette, it all hangs together sweetly. Touches of gospel (Allen and Carter's yearning duet feature "There is a God") sit snugly alongside Craig's jazztronica miniatures, while Detroit's musical philosophy is laid down in a juicy slice of hiphop with rhymes from Invincible and Athletic Mic League. "Don't forget the Motor City!", implored Martha and the Vandellas in "Dancing In The Street". Not much chance of that with this lot about; inventive, entertaining stuff. Recommended.