Alex O. Smith has been releasing as Omar-S on his own FXHE Recordings since the early 2000s. The catalog runs to dozens of titles and is among the most prolific in active Detroit techno. Smith does it almost entirely solo: he produces, presses, distributes, and books his own work.
Smith grew up in Detroit and worked at the city's auto plants before making music his job. The biographical detail he has shared in public is sparse and consistent — Conant Gardens, the auto line, late nights in front of an MPC. He started FXHE in the early 2000s and has not stopped putting out records since.
The catalog spans EPs, twelve-inches, and a handful of long-players. "Just Ask the Lonely" came out in 2005. "It Can Be Done But Only I Can Do It" in 2014 is the most-cited full-length. "The Best!" followed in 2017. The records are raw, Detroit-house-leaning, often unmixed in a way that reads as a deliberate aesthetic rather than a budget constraint. The early FXHE singles are now collector items in the secondary market.
Smith's interview record is short and unfiltered. He has said he does not particularly care about the European festival economy, has talked openly about not getting paid by labels he does not control, and has called out Detroit-techno gatekeeping in print. The position is consistent across two decades and shows up in the structural decisions: own label, own pressings, own books.
The DJ work is steady. Movement bookings have run most years since the late 2000s. He plays Lincoln Factory, TV Lounge, and the afterparty circuit when he is in town, and tours Europe a few times a year. The sets are unmixed in places, perfectly clean in others; he does not perform the precision-DJ role.
The collaborators are vetted. John FM, the Detroit vocalist, has been on multiple FXHE records. OB Ignitt is on the label. Luke Hess and Detroit-adjacent house producers have shown up on FXHE records over the years. The label is a closed network by design.
He has stayed in Detroit. The studio is at home. The pressing decisions are his. The catalog is too large to anthologize and too uneven to summarize cleanly, which seems to be the point. Smith has said in print that he does not want a best-of.
FXHE's most recent release landed in late January. The next one is not announced and will not be announced. It will appear when it appears.
