Alton Miller - Blue Funk

Astonishingly, Alton Miller was already four years into his production career when the "Blue Funk EP" first dropped on short-lived Detroit techno label M3 way back in 1997. The Detroiter is of course still going strong, though his productions are now way more polished than they were back then. As this reissue proves, the rawness and energy of his (relatively) early productions remains highly addictive. Check for example the hot-stepping analogue Afro-house beats, rich bass and tasty keys of "Bliss", the breathlessly loopy sweatiness of "Lovin' & Dancing" - a kind of raw disco-house cut-up masterpiece - and the trippy, breakbeat-driven sample house intensity of "Blue Funk" itself. The smoothest track of all, the NJ deep house influenced "All Tonight", is closest in tone to his more recent productions.