- "I would like to be the youngest and first Korean female DJ that plays in Berghain," Peggy Gou said last month. Her pick-n-mix tastes might not see her command that booth anytime soon, but the statement says a lot about her drive. And yet that ambition is more apparent in the remixes of Gou than her own productions, which sway between sour Chicago house timbres and bassy disco warmth. Easygoing as it feels, Art Of War II's assertive stomp and sticky textures make for solid, if not spectacular, dance music.
"Jen High" glints with pleasant Rhodes loops embedded in itchy hi-hats and a stuttered bassline, creating a subtle rough-smooth contrast that Gou employs nicely. Dust-caked hand drums, click-clacking like a busy typewriter, swing around the groove's more mechanised parts, which is how "Jen High" edges past its peers.
On "When Round, They Go," Gou filters out an acid melody to highlight the space around her gummy percussion, where tones and bleeps ricochet and fade. It sounds bleached in spots—saturated with sound in some places, drained of colour in others—which is an interesting technique, even if the song isn't strong enough to sustain it. Terekke radically redesigns "When Round, They Go," moistening Gou's drums and retrofitting the beat with Basic Channel-esque dub and downtempo jazz fragments. It's nowhere near as forceful as the source material, but its gentleness is more persuasive.
TracklistA1 Jen High
A2 When Round, They Go
B1 When Round, They Go (Terekke Remix)