Out of the depths of Detroit’s electronic underground emerges a record that doesn’t ask for attention as much as it demands it. “Yes, I Can,” the new single from producer-visionary JMT featuring Daniel Hex, is a genre-breaking love letter to the sounds of the city’s past, present, and future. Pulling the sweat-drenched thump of GhettoTech into the slick confines of R&B, the mechanical soul of techno, and the something of a shock-horror sense of will-they-really-dare?–this is driving, innervating, fresh as a daisy stuff.
Conceived on a drizzly afternoon at Heaven Studios, the storied space co-founded by Royce Da 5’9, the track’s inception was as chill as you can get. It all started with Daniel Hex’s sweet, honeyed voice nesting softly on top of a pretty straight 125bpm groove. But JMT, being JMT, couldn’t leave well enough alone. He wound up the tempo, fed the bassline steroids, and drove the tune head-on into Detroit’s sleazy nightlife ethos. The transformation was electric.
What we have here is a track that sounds like two worlds coming together in the coolest way. There’s romance in the vocals, nostalgia in the melodies, and pure kinetic chaos in the drums. “Yes, I Can” is like slow-dancing under strobe lights, intimate and explosive at once. It’s the sort of track that makes you wish you were falling in love at 2 AM on the dancefloor.
Giving more than just props to sonic disruptors like HiTech, MCR-T, and DJ Godfather, JMT is helping to redesign the playground. “We wanted to make a GhettoTech record that felt like a classic R&B record,” he says, and he did it, with style, vision, and a whole lot of swagger. Taken from his new album GHETTOTECHTROPOLIS, “Yes, I Can” is a cultural barometer. JMT is more than surfing the wave of Detroit’s underground renaissance. He’s shaping it.
