Baba Stiltz - Running To Chad

  • The Swedish artist takes on classic rock.
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  • With 2018's Showtime, Baba Stiltz pivoted to goofy pop music with mixed results, but the first single on his new label Cycle exudes confidence. Part of that is because his love for the kind of minimal dance music he started out making is still strong, and this 12-inch brings the two together. The A-side original is hardly electronic at all, save for a synth solo, but it comes with a glorious DJ Python remix that harkens back to the halcyon days of early '00s Kompakt, glitchy and sublime. "Running To Chad" is one of Stiltz's funniest songs yet, but he wears it with a straight face. It's a ditty about going to California—or at least dreaming about it—set to a classic rock chug somewhere between early Eagles and Stealer's Wheel. Its charming and naive delivery reminds me of the kind of dance-not-dance vocal track you'd hear in a set from a DJ like Matias Aguayo. It is lighthearted, and in DJ Python's hands it becomes a weepy banger, capturing a side of minimal techno that pulses like a heartbeat, with warm pads and vocal snippets. There's also a bloghouse-baiting remix from Jesse, but it's Python's remix that hogs the attention, reducing Stiltz's original to a mere syllable, as Python builds the kind of overcast atmosphere of his last album, Mas Amable, in a more retro fashion. It's the kind of debut label release you could only hope for: an artist playing to their strengths with a remixer who knows how to massage it into something new and worthwhile.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Running To Chad B1 Running To Chad (Jesse Remix) B2 Running To Chad (DJ Python Remix)
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