Detroit-based Todd Modes is certainly one of the city’s best kept secrets. Even though he kept a rather low profile over the years, putting up smokescreens one after the other without losing track of his singular and cohesive vision, Cochell contributed a fair amount of productions under various names and hats, such as Cosmic Handshakes and Modes & Severson.
For his debut incursion on Aaron Siegel’s FIT Sound, Cochell delivers what is without a doubt his most accomplished slab to date. The EP’s totemic opener ‘Ariadne‘ is a transcendental drum-loaded jam, giving full vent to live-played congas courtesy of none other than Mike Huckaby’s brother Craig, as an oriental litany unravels in dune-filled dreamscapes.
Here Todd Modes’ shows off a sixth sense for instrumental composition and spatial construction. Carried by the enthralling sax lines of Mike Mumford, ‘Knossos‘ is a sublime jazz wandering in smokey, Brautigan-esque realms, giving off a vibe similar to that of Miles Davis’ score to ‘Elevator to the Gallows‘ supplemented by stealth bass moves and muffled vox samples. A track to surrender your senses and consciousness to.
Ringing down the curtain on a deeply hypnotic note, the stunning title-track ‘Native Visions‘ pulsates to the syncopated rhythm of primitive percs as Mike Severson’s guitar vibratos electrify the thick, stifling air of an ayahuasca-induced, mystic jungle. Equally at ease with an unlikely elixir of ’80s hard-rock solos and ancestral drum patterns or more typical Detroit house tropes, Cochell proves if needed that the Motown’s still there to provide some of the most exciting dance music around.
Native Visions EP is out now, order a copy from Juno.
TRACKLIST
A1. Ariadne
A2. Knossos
B1. Native Visions
Discover more about Todd Modes and FIT Sound on Inverted Audio.