“Reunion”, the debut album by Alex Barck created quite a stir last year. Now two 12inch releases make sure that this stir is not fading away by any time soon. Two 12inches that include remixes by the current creme de la creme of electronic dance music production.
After Osunlade delivered already last year an outstanding rendition of the album track “Oh Africa” it’s now up to Amsterdam based producer and DJ Full Crate to get his hands on this declaration of love to a whole continent. Masterfully he accomplishes this endeavour while weaving Christine Salem’s voice along a twisted shuffle beat and drives the track to the next level by adding stabbing synth chords. Full contact!
On the flipside the enigmatic British production duo Mao take us by surprise with their reinterpretation of “Doubter”. All of a sudden Jonatan Bäckelie finds himself in a dripstone cave. The massive beat framework props the whole track from not being torn down by the never ending echoing vocals. It’s with this courageous proposition that Mao for once and all ensure to be one of the production teams to look out for in 2014.
For the digital release Barck ordered another two additional remixes. Ada (by now based in Hamburg and on Pampa Records) doesn’t even make a move to adapt the track for one of her infamous techno sets. She rather sets for a sound that is labelled now PBR&B or Alternative R&B. This woman is not only on a roll, she is highly involved to redefine electronic music. This remix is a testimonial letter.
In a similar way Moscow based producer Phil Gerus is putting his head above the parapet. Up to now his productions and remixes were always to be found near the crate tagged chillwave. But now he takes a giant step towards the future. He acts like a goldsmith, cutting the vocals to its crystalline form to restructure them within a breathtaking arrangement spiked with samples. A masterpiece.
