Label
dfaemi 2159, 0946 3 6071
- NYC duo Delia Gonzales & Gavin Russom, a recent addition to the DFA Records family, give us another highly anticipated release in the form of the 'Revelee' remixes. The original featured on last year's much lauded 'Days of Mars', and it now gets an overhaul courtesy of some remixers par excellence. With the summer in full swing, it's a time for the illustrious to air out their big tracks, and this particular package is already receiving plenty of brouhaha.
The EP gets off to a modest start with the 'Alternative Version', a fairly banal, proggy update on the original, which at times echoes Holden without ever coming close to melodic grandeur. A bare pulse guides the way, but it's only some nice synth touches at the end which just save it from merely repeating a monotone. One for the couch loafers.
Production outfit DFA, aka James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy, offer a cool slice of laid back electrohouse which has disco nonchalance aplenty. Tight drums, a hooky bassline and soft vocal snippets form the spine of this very friendly and versatile little number, which should see plenty of support from bar and warm-up DJs. Nothing too complicated melody-wise here, but this smacks of late night party jams and will delight funkier club clientele.
As you'd expect, Motor City's Carl Craig goes deep and very electronic, electro synth lines patiently building for an eon before a limb-shaking kick drum joins and it becomes apparent that Craig's made another monster akin to his 'Falling Up' remix. Beautiful, tinkly pianos offset the mounting tension, heavy claps creating a sense of vastness, but Craig still manages to upset the applecart in his trademark jazzy style - this is nothing short of groundbreaking. Like his remixes of Garnier's 'Barbiturk Blues' and Masekela's 'The Boys Doin it', here Craig is proving his recent form, and long may it last.
Baby Ford arrives late in one of his lo-fi, trippy, minimal moods, fully intent on sinking the battleship before we get to port. A world apart from the other mixes, Peter Ford adds a touch of dark surrealism to the hereto largely upbeat package with low-slung, barely audible and often introverted meanderings taking you on a jaunt down amnesia lane. Almost a carbon copy of his 'Dead-Eye Jones' underground outing from the early nineties (though not nearly as good), this'll confuse and disorient the most rational.
The DFA rerub will have the widest appeal clubwise, hitting the middle ground between the bleakness of Baby Ford and the mundanity of the 'Alternative Version'. But yet again, Carl Craig continues to dazzle us with a talent for production others may only dream about, pipping the competition to the post in a package that has something for everyone.