Eddie Fowlkes – ‘Special EP’ [Detroit Wax]

Eddie ‘Flashin’ Fowlkes is a stone-cold legend, and an essential part of techno history that Jimmy Monsta Funk constantly educates on. A new record then is always good news, and while this one may not be available until the end of the month (26th October release date to be precise) at least now we’ve got something to look forward.

Over to Monsta Funk for the review on the forthcoming wax.

via Jimmy Monsta Funk
So much of our lives revolves around the power of the number three; the holy trinity, the past, present and future, and both bad and good things happen in threes. In the case of Eddie ‘Flashin’ Fowlkes, the power of three has definitely been more bad than good. This is due to him being written out of the early history of Detroit Techno in favour of the neatly monikered ‘Belleville 3‘ (aka Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson), in some respects this choice of name (coined by an English journalist as far as I’m aware) should be replaced by a name such as ‘The Funky D Three plus 1‘, with the plus 1 being Mr Eddie Fowlkes. Since his first release ‘Goodbye Kiss’ on Juan Atkins’ Metroplex imprint in 1986, Eddie has released a slew of records that very often explode on to the dance-floor and become big fixtures in a variety of DJs selections.

Since 2008, Eddie has been running his label Detroit Wax and the latest release from the label is about to drop at the end of the month.

The first track is called ‘Something Special E’, a tight house groove intertwined with the repeated vocal refrain ‘Something Special’ and pulsing technological atmospherics coming in and out of the mix. This track shows off Eddie’s stylistic link to both Chicago and Detroit and will likely get plays from a wide-range of record spinners across the house and techno spheres.

The second track ‘War on Dance’ is anything but a war, it’s a fantastic piece of music weaving a synthetic steel drum (I sense a slight hint of ‘Salsa Life’ by Rhythm is Rhythm, but maybe that’s just me), some low key pads, the classic Detroit strings and a swinging drum pattern that just won’t quit.

Eddie has never really been a man with a template, but once again he’s created two pieces of highly compelling music that will attract both the heads and those who like to move their feet.

If you’ve not done so already it’s also worth checking out the first words he wrote for us on Underground Resistance (https://awkmo.co/jimmy-monsta-funk-on-underground/) as well as the 3×5 series on Jazz & Techno (Part 1: https://awkmo.co/jimmy-monstafunk-3-x-5-techno-after/) among other contributions.