- If you're unfamiliar with Berlin producer Aera, he makes a pseudo-psychedelic sort of house that sounds exactly like the splotchy art that adorns his Aleph releases. Over the past two years he's given us eleven tracks of bubbly weirdo house, and his label's fourth release looks back on each with strong remixes from equally idiosyncratic contemporaries.
First up is Mano Le Tough for "Flowers on Fire," speeding up the original's hypnotic slow-mo trance reverie into a true serotonin rush. The arpeggios blur together at such high speeds, offset by some well-timed jazzy chords, turning the original's meandering amble into a club-ready gallop. Chicago staple Area's "Aerated" mix (confused yet?) of "What's My Name Again" bundles up the choppy, seasick track's chords into bursts of joint-snapping tumbles, a decisive piston-slam angle on his usually slightly more serene brand of dub techno.
But the highlight of the release belongs to relative unknown Lithuanian producer Wasted Gaze, who turns "Port Hope" into a swung breakbeat roller halfway between garage and tech house. It's a track that sounds eminently trendy and timely but imaginative enough to stand out anyway, blowing so many "future garage" contemporaries right out of the water with something determinedly physical and assertive.
Tracklist A Flowers On Fire (Mano Le Tough Remix)
B1 Port Hope (Wasted Gaze Last Hope Remix)
B2 What's My Name Again? (Aerated by Area)