- Stefan Goldmann has had an excellent year. 'Darkstar' and ''Blood'' (both on Perlon) were shining examples of clarity and precision that managed to be both utterly contemporary and completely original. Innervisions has also had an excellent year, coming up with a new kind of highly emotive dance music that blurs the line between minimal, electro and old-fashioned deep house. That and the fact that 'Rej' is still being played everywhere, as well as 'Where We At' being a bona fide anthem.
So, delightfully, when you put the two together, you get them both doing what they do best. 'Sleepy Hollow' is elegant, like Audrey Hepburn in a little black dress. It's incredibly simple – a descending series of notes repeated over and over and a snappy hi-hat driven beat. That's really it.
But it is also, of course, beautiful, and manages to conjure contradictory feelings of melancholy, forward motion, clarity and drugginess all out of those incredibly simple elements. Much like Buttrich''s 'Full Clip', it indulges in all sorts of fancy sonic manipulation around the core idea, in what I feel (apologies to UR) is truly high tech jazz. When listening to these sorts of tracks its difficult to tell what makes them so great – is it the simplicity or is it the hidden complexity?
Ame''s remix on the flipside smooths out the bumps and softens the kicks, giving it their signature smeary sentimentality. It''s much more chilled out than the original and to my ears loses a lot of the appeal, but would also make a very pleasant late night tune.
File with 'Mouth to Mouth', 'Full Clip' and 'Doppelwhipper'. This is really the sound that defined 2006.
TracklistA Stefan Goldmann - Sleepy Hollow
B Stefan Goldmann & Âme - Sleepy Hollow Version