Every spring in Michigan, the first real stretch of warm weather—and not the fluke of an errant balmy day—brings residents out of their winter hibernation and gives them a taste of what they have to look forward to in the coming months. And among those summer delights is the promise of weekends spent up north, a zone where time seems to accommodate dog days and starry nights.
Right on time for that initial wave of sunshine comes a new tape of beats by Eddie Logix, one of Detroit’s star producers. As he puts it, Ohana (a Hawaiian term meaning family) takes its inspiration “from being grateful for the people who have stuck around me for so long and the opportunity to continue making music on my own terms for all these years. It’s just another continuation of the #CoOwnaz culture and a way of giving T.Hanks.”
Unlike other “tapes” that are only nominally so, Ohana literally is a tape and is being released on cassette only. The project’s length and sequencing were determined by the physical format, and a lot of its sound was a product of necessity. Last year, many of Logix’s files and much of his gear was stolen during a studio break, which forced him to start over from scratch. Ohana‘s hypnotic beats and narcotized samples evince Logix’s trademark sound, but also show him experimenting with new techniques.
Those innovations come to the fore on “Numbers on the Front,” a short cut that comes with a visual accompaniment comprising found footage. Detroit Music Magazine is honored to premiere the video for the track, whose faded mien matches the hypnagogic atmosphere Logix conjures with his sounds. He had this to say about the video:
A couple years ago I found all of these 8mm film reels that belonged to my father and later had them transferred to digital. The film turned out to have a lot of footage from when my father was young and his family would go spend time at a lake up north as many Michigan families do in the spring and summertime. I always wanted to do something with the footage but wasn’t sure what it would be until I was making this beat tape and knew it was a perfect fit for the Ohana theme. The editing process for this video allowed me to build a better connection with a part of my family that was never there before and to create characters and a story out of this footage that otherwise would have been forgotten.
You can watch the DMM Premiere of the video for “Numbers on the Front” below:
To celebrate the release of Ohana, Detroit’s favorite producers, rappers, and DJs will fill The Elizabeth Theater at The Park Bar on April 29 at 9 p.m. Eddie Logix will be in attendance, supported by Pig Pen, his counterpart in the newly formed group Mega Powers, as well as Matt Black performing as Peace to Mateo from the Young Heavy Souls collective. To round out the evening Blair French and DTCHPLNES of Fat Finger Cosmic will be spinning in between and after the sets, and Logix has promised some surprise appearances during his own set.
Presale tickets are available for $5 and come with a free download of Ohana before its official digital release on April 25. In addition to the cassette tapes, #CoOwnaz will also be doing a limited run of their signature tees and tank tops in the new “Ohana Colorway.” You can also check out advance single “World Cup XVI” below: