- Reducing old soul, among other styles, to a cog in the machine is the best possible thing techno can do for the classics. It gives them—and a listener weary of hearing them in more obvious contexts—some breathing room. Take "Heartbreaker," the lead track on the first EP by Venezuelan producer-DJ Argenis Brito on his confrere Bloody Mary's Dame-Music. (Brito did vocal duties on Mary's great "Sed non Satiata" from last year, and has sung for Senor Coconut on tour, so he knows a thing or two about honoring history by messing with it.)
Over fractured, plinking guitar and percussion, Brito drops in Edwin Starr's vocal from his 1970 Motown classic "War," fragmenting its holy fervor to shift the song's priorities to emphasize romantic calamity. Mining a hit as obvious as "War" skirts kitsch as a rule, but Brito's approach is too saucy and playful to be reduced to mere sentimentality. The two B-sides offer more of the same jacking grooves, occasional odd rhythmic emphases and insouciant air as the A. "Simulator" gooses its minimalist arrangement with steady bass and clipped-bordering-on-slivered percussion. "Ain't Rocket Science" makes its presence felt with thick, slurping hi-hats and darting bass that move the track while found-sound fragments dot it lovingly and overdriven horns buoy its end.
Tracklist A Heartbreaker
B1 Simulator
B2 Ain't Rocket Science