Fantasy

This 1998 album was Kelley ‘K-Hand’ Hand’s fifth since her ’95 debut. It’s a DJ/clubber album, Detroit house all the way across its ten songs, with not one ambient interlude or ill-advised drum & bass experiment, just straight-up 4/4 electronic dance music. Drums are a defining feature of every dance/electronic music genre and K-Hand’s beats are highly functional, expertly produced, dance-floor-ready layers of shuffling hi-hats, conga loops, drum machine rhythms, and the arrangements, like the drums, are constructed to function on the underground dance floors of late 90s Detroit, so there’s hardly any breakdowns, and certainly no epic build-ups, just heads-down grooves: this is music that celebrates the loop and relishes the gradual reveal. The inclusion of the entire 8:34 12” version of “Low Key” demonstrates Detroit’s take on Chicago house, the jazzy Rhodes keys are pure Chicago house, the never-resolving synth pads so very Detroit techno. Just one of many high-quality albums from a much-missed Detroit artist.