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Top 20 Albums
20. Scuba - A Mutual Antipathy
Scuba - A Mutual Antipathy
"Scuba's relocation to Berlin has been an important one. No, he hasn't started making minimal, but the textures of Berlin—and the influence of Detroit—are all over these songs. Antipathy is a stunningly successful combination of London dubstep beats and subs with the floating textures of early '90s and contemporary techno, all pitched just right for home listening."
-- Jacob Burns
19. Claro Intelecto - Metanarrative
Claro Intelecto - Metanarrative
"Pounding, floor-friendly and sharply produced, Intelecto's Warehouse Sessions delved into the darker sides of techno and electro, but Metanarrative is something different again. Where Sessions was functional, Metanarrative is emotional, although, in typical Intelecto style, distilled from an extensive array of influences—electro, IDM, Detroit techno, dub techno."
-- Janet Leyton-Grant
18. Kenny Larkin - Keys, Strings, Tambourines
Kenny Larkin - Keys, Strings, Tambourines
"Throughout Keys, Strings, Tambourines, Larkin peppers his elegant tech house rhythms with jazzy keyboard fills, strings, tambourines and oddball synth blurts, making for an especially tuneful listen that doesn't skimp on the ass-shaking. Fans of Larkin's classic works will not be disappointed here, nor will those discovering his music for the first time."
-- Todd Hutlock
17. Dave Aju - Open Wide
Dave Aju - Open Wide
"Dave Aju's conceptual precision on Open Wide is admirable—'all tracks written and produced...using only his mouth as a sound source.' But the album works because, while its concept is ultimately subservient to the overall composition, you can't imagine these tracks in quite the same manner without the particular tenor of Aju's mouth-noise."
-- Jon Dale
16. Quiet Village - Silent Movie
Quiet Village – Silent Movie
Quiet Village caused a bit of commotion amongst the disco beards with their long awaited full-length. Was it an album of edits? Or just a sample-based record? However you classify the material, there's no escaping Silent Movie's ability to transport your mind to the most tropical climes imaginable. If that isn't Balearic, then I don't know what is.
-- Richard Carnes
15. Ricardo Villalobos - Vasco
Ricardo Villalobos - Vasco
"The Spanish translation of Basque, Vasco refers to a people whose language bears absolutely no resemblance to its neighbors. Fittingly, Vasco is an album that lies in contrast with all that surrounds it. After the stark musings of Fabric 36, Villalobos is now crafting lengthy, enigmatic pieces that either vastly redefine 'house' or defy categorization altogether."
-- Will Lynch
14. Minilogue - Animals
Minilogue - Animals
"Animals is firmly progressive in form and length, recalling both drum & bass and '70s progressive rock at its most overblown. Yet their revisionism is subtle, keeping to a linear rhythmic template with frequently wonky analogue flourishes, familiar from 'Elephant's Parade.' If earlier tracks hinted at a trademark sound, here it becomes a firmly established one."
-- Joshua Meggitt
13. Ezekiel Honig - Surfaces of a Broken March Band
Ezekiel Honig - Surfaces of a Broken March Band
"Surfaces of a Broken Marching Band is a symphony transmitted from the bottom of the sea. Cold and murky, it's warmed by sudden currents and shifts of sediment from the ocean bed, kicking up brief flickers of light and sound that you notice whether or not you catch the disturbances that created them. There hasn't been a better 'ambient' album this year."
-- Derek Miller
12. Deadbeat - Roots & Wires
Deadbeat - Roots & Wires
"Roots and Wire succeeds because the different intensities and beat structures of each track offer an ebb and flow, bound together by a dub reggae spirit. More importantly perhaps, Monteith's refusal to aim for moody, vacuous postures aids in letting the whole thing breathe. In fact, being so good, the only complaint you'll have is that isn't a little bit longer."
-- Chris Mann
11. Prosumer & Murat Tepeli - Serenity
Prosumer & Murat Tepeli - Serenity
"It's no light thing to say that Serenity is a perfect partner for a musico-romantic involvement with Larry Heard's classic productions as Mr. Fingers. And it's no mean feat that the duo have managed to produce a collection of tracks and songs that not only echo but amplify and renew the passion that they draw their form and voice from."
-- Peter Chambers
10. Loco Dice - 7 Dunham Place
Loco Dice - 7 Dunham Place
"Besides the floor-fit swagger of 'Tight Laces,' Dunham Place trades pressing for peaceful, focusing on the momentary smear of all its parts over their sum. If there's an album from this year that's kissing-cousins with Dice's, not as much in sound but in the weight it places on attention to minutiae, it's Move D and Benjamin Brunn's Songs from the Beehive."
-- Derek Miller
09. Bruno Pronsato - Why Can't We Be Like Us?
Bruno Pronsato - Why Can't We Be Like Us?
"Why Can't We Be Like Us is like the unexpected fulfilment of a promise: unexpected because none of Bruno Pronsato's EPs so far had hinted at anything this good; and a fulfilment in the sense that he has spared nothing with this work—there is nothing missing, lacking, insufficient. All you other wannabes, you're on notice: the bar has just been raised."
-- Peter Chambers
08. Portishead - Third
Portishead - Third
"Third is so dense yet humanely touching, so diverse yet consistent, so remote yet profound, so vaguely cold yet keenly warm it goes beyond any generic conventions and expectations. Portishead doesn't do musical genre: it only does music. Nothing more, and nothing less. How often can you say that about any contemporary producers or so-called artists?"
-- Stéphane Girard
07. Lindstrøm - Where You Go I Go Too
Lindstrom - Where You Go I Go Too
"Even for cosmic, with its inherent tendency for hubris, Lindstrøm's ambition is dizzying. The three tracks on Where You Go clock in at 28:58, 10:11, and 15:58, allowing him to 'develop different themes and let them evolve.' But despite appearances, Lindstrøm doesn't stray too far from his comfort zone of melody-based music. And as it turns out, that's a good thing."
-- Daniel Bates
06. Lee Jones - Electronic Frank
Lee Jones - Electronic Frank
"What's surprising about Electronic Frank is how low-key it is: There are few obvious peaks. But hidden beneath the veil of subtlety, these tracks conceal a wealth of charms, new textures that unfold with every listen. Like the red-striped zebra on the cover, the album's songs are delicate confections, wonderfully crafted and hard to dislike."
-- Robin Wilks
05. The Mole - As High as the Sky
The Mole - As High as the Sky
"On first listen, one thing that's apparent is that The Mole bloody loves his live disco beats. Whether they're shuffling, skippy, looped up or just plain rolling, the sound of live drums is plastered over this record from start to finish, which makes it all the more shocking that As High as the Sky flows beautifully from track to track, each segue as measured and natural as the last."
-- Richard Carnes
04. Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules & Love Affair
Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules & Love Affair
"Rarely has an American dance music LP been so in touch with its oft-forgotten house and underground disco past while sounding so current. The admiration for genre luminaries Frankie Knuckles, Kevin Saunderson or even Morgan Geist is no mere redundancy, though: You can hear real and brilliant bedroom craftsmanship all over these ten cuts."
-- Stéphane Girard
03. Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
"The cover of Flying Lotus's Los Angeles will remind most viewers of Massive Attack's Mezzanine. The image perfectly captures the complicated, compelling and otherworldly sound contained within. Steven Ellison's second full-length comes together from all directions at once, a beautiful mess of contradictions, sacred thoughts and visual sounds."
-- Chris Mann
02. Move D & Benjamin Brunn - Songs from the Beehive
Move D & Benjamin Brunn - Songs from the Beehive
"David Moufang's work as Move D is geometric. Benjamin Brunn's sound signature, meanwhile, is closer to fluid mechanics. Together these two approaches harmonise wonderfully, with Moufang's structures providing solid shapes for Brunn's melodic whirlpools and rhythmic glidings to unwind through: D builds the beehive, Brunn makes the honey."
-- Peter Chambers
Shed - Shedding the Past
01. Shed - Shedding the Past
"Shedding is an album that harkens back to its influences for the sake of progress rather than nostalgia. Over the course of these eleven tracks, Shed paints a stark landscape, glistening with steely hues of early techno and forming something sleek, jagged and as he puts it, 'full of energy and vigor.' Much like Berghain/Panorama Bar and its illustrious cast of resident DJs, Shed perpetuates the visceral excitement of old school rave by ceaselessly presenting the listener with something cryptic, physical and modern."
Top 20 Comps
20. Carl Craig – Sessions
Carl Craig - Sessions
"It's not as if we needed much of a reminder of Carl Craig's genius in 2008, but when faced with the totality of his range on Sessions, it's still a bit breathtaking. Craig can recast just about anything—The Junior Boys' synth pop, Rhythm & Sound's deep dub, Francesco Tristano's solo piano—and make it epic, danceable and totally new. Which, of course, shouldn't overshadow his original productions. Sessions' second disc was littered with them and reminded us of just how long it's been since the master has been at work. Perhaps in 2009 he could see fit to remind us of that too."
-- Terrence Fuller
19. Adam Beyer - Fuse Presents...
Adam Beyer - Fuse Presents...
"Unlike previous efforts, the emphasis for Beyer on Fuse is on the hypnotic repetition and the cleaner, intricate melodies of minimal and less on the dirtier electro hammer of the past. Beyer never gets weighed down in the intellectual pretensions of minimal, though. He sticks to his roots, driving straight for the more high-octane banging side, all without sacrificing the melodic complexities of the individual tracks. This is in fact where the genius of Beyer's mix lies: The prismic manner in which he burns the EQ spraying around the melodic and percussive accents is truly master class, even more so because of the high tempo he maintains."
-- Chris Mann
18. VA - Circoloco @ DC10 - 10 Years Anniversary
Various Artists - Circoloco @ DC10 - 10 Years Anniversary
"If its brief reopening for the rest of the '08 season was to be the last hurrah for DC-10, then this ten-year anniversary, six-disc behemoth of deep druggy house is even more essential. Those unfamiliar with the DC-10 sound will be bemused at how such "deep" music can enthrall over a two-hour set, let alone nearly nine. But those in the know understand it's all about stamina at DC-10: Beloved resident Tania Vulcano, Italo boy DJ Sossa, those Romanian upstarts Rhadoo, Petre Inspirescu and Raresh, the irrepressible Matthias Tanzmann and the sublime Thomas Melchior each have programmed a swirling subterranean soundtrack for a day in the dust."
-- Piero Ruzzene
17. Matthew Dear - Body Language Vol. 7
Matthew Dear - Body Language Vol. 7
"The core of Matthew Dear's entry into the Body Language series focuses on tracks that tease out controlled funkiness, congas, heavy breathing and the kind of innuendo-tainted vocals intent on clawing foreplay back onto supposedly sterile dance floors. Sascha Dive and Johnny D are on board for two tracks each, with the likes of Kid Sublime, Seth Troxler and others co-opting the habits of deep house along with some of the influences that first fed house music in the first place—a touch of diva here, a taste of polyrhythm there. In other words, a portrait of what made dance floors move in 2008."
-- Dimitri Nasrallah
16. Dave Clarke - Back in the Box
Dave Clarke - Back in the Box
"Back in the Box provides the ultimate tool for dance music history boffins with a collection of classic deep Chicago house and forthright acid weirdness, as well as a number of "uncategorizables." What is most intriguing about listening to this collection though, is that over time you begin to hear where modern genres like minimal techno and progressive house came from. "Give Yourself to Me" is a dead ringer for "Trompeta" by SIS, you could be fooled into believing that "In a Vision" was a John Digweed creation and "Mystery Girl," the best track of the lot, sounds like it's straight off Daft Punk's Homework."
-- Finlay John
15. Basic Channel - BCD-2
Basic Channel - BCD-2
"After keeping Basic Channel more or less in mothballs for the last decade or so (a couple of reissues of some related work for Planet E aside), suddenly, with no fanfare or even much notice, a second CD arrives. This time, however, the tracks are full-length versions arranged in chronological order and packaged in a simple black digipak with titles clear on front and the BC and Maurizio catalogs detailed in the center spread (the "buy vinyl!" message remains on the back). Maybe the years have softened Ernestus and Von Oswald, because this CD is about as definitive a label comp as one could fit on a single disc."
-- Todd Hutlock
14. Stefan Goldmann - The Transitory State
Stefan Goldmann - The Transitory State
"The first disc of The Transitory State is a collection of works released over the past three years, but the lack of novelties is made up for by the fact that, in sequence, this album sounds wonderful. Voices of the Dead—the second disc—inhabits an odd twilight world of static tones and electroacoustic hums; a kind of bare-bones ambient music. The scale of this project might seem pompous to some, but Goldmann comes out of it well—his ambition is justified by the quality of the music. And whatever you think of the second disc here, the first is doubtless one of the best house albums released this year."
-- Robin Wilks
13. Sascha Funke - Watergate 02
Sascha Funke - Watergate 02
"Where Onur Özer's Watergate 01 was a strictly minimal affair, Sascha Funke's working from a more broadly colored palette far more in line with his own Mango release earlier this year. Though he sifts older tracks like the clubfooted house of Maus & Stolle's "Taxi" and Closer Musik's broad-shouldered "Giganten" into Watergate 02, the mix centers around some of 2008's deft club and home standouts, a well-crafted sequence fit for house parties, lengthy autumn drives or just sweeping up around the home. Watergate 02 is child happy, melding emotive techno with some of the year's steamier cardiac fare."
-- Derek Miller
12. Wighnomy Brothers - Metawuffmischfelge
Wighnomy Brothers - Metawuffmischfelge
"Recorded from turntables, several of them, Metawuffmischfelge is a fine antidote to the Hawtin school of digital cleanliness. Over 30 tracks are thrown into this sixty minute session, and we're seldom presented with individual works. Indeed, the point seems to be to play numerous records simultaneously and continuously, to see what exotic cocktail emerges. The pace is languid, in a woozy deep house kind of way, and the effect of all this is like seeing double, dancing drunk: double kick drums beef up the lower end, hats compete to stay in time, basslines stagger and sway, fading in and out of view."
-- Joshua Meggitt
11. VA - Soundboy's Gravestone Gets Desecrated by Vandals
Various Artists - Soundboy's Gravestone Gets Desecrated by Vandals
Compilation and tombstone, Soundboy's Gravestone Gets Desecrated by Vandals collects (basically) the second-half of Skull Disco's output or—as I like to call it—when Shackleton and Appleblim got weird. While their first edition was assuredly strange, there seemed to be a formula to their Middle East-tinged dubstep. On Soundboy's Gravestone there seem to be no referents, something further put forward by their stunning slate of remixes on the second disc that move from dub to drone to somewhere else entirely. The only question that still lies unanswered for me? Where in the hell does these guys go from here?
-- Sam Louis
10. Andy Stott - Unknown Exception: Selected Tracks Vol. 1 (2004 - 2008)
Andy Stott - Unknown Exception: Selected Tracks Vol. 1 (2004 - 2008)
"Drawing inspiration from the usual dub techno suspects (Basic Channel is loud and clear) and fusing them with minimalist ideals and bathwater-warm melodies and textures, Stott's tracks offer a deep home listening experience, as well as the requisite punch to make club floors move. Stott works with consistent tones and a palette that never seems to get tired, Stott makes even his most dissimilar material sit comfortably together long enough to take a loving family portrait. Despite his pedigree, popularity and near-universal acclaim, Stott still holds somewhat of a low profile; Unknown Exception should raise it exponentially."
-- Todd Hutlock
09. Âme - Fabric 42
Âme - Fabric 42
"You might not associate the creators of 2005's ubiquitous milky way jam, "Rej," with musty old school funk and techno. But in creating Fabric 42, Âme's Kristian Beyer and Frank Widemann dug into their collection in an attempt to step out of their deep house shadow a bit. As such, perhaps more than any mix this year, Fabric 42 is reminiscent of The Mole's As High as the Sky. Murky and reverberant at once, Fabric 42 often seems refracted through a dense and cluttered space, one that resembles a museum storage hall as much as a dancefloor."
-- Derek Miller
08. Robert Hood - Fabric 39
Robert Hood - Fabric 39
"In its best moments, Fabric 39 is a summation of a particularly hardy and long-lived style of Detroit techno, the kind with fast pummeling beats, short loops and a punchy, urban feel. It doesn't want to gently seduce you into dancing, it wants to beat you into submission and then jiggle your limp limbs like a puppet on a string. Like his long-time collaborator Jeff Mills he treats records as tools and components to be reassembled into a new whole. It feels less like the tracks are being mixed together, and more like they're being hurled at the dancefloor in quick succession."
-- Jacob Wright
07. Gas - Nah und Fern
Gas - Nah und Fern
"When Arnold Schoenberg devised twelve-tone serialism in the 1920s, he claimed it would "ensure the supremacy of German music for the next hundred years." Similarly, Kompakt founder Wolfgang Voigt has always been about creating a distinctly German form of music, although this time not in opposition to atonal composition but to Anglo-American pop. The result has been twenty years of techno records defined by what Voigt has humorously described in the Wire as "boofta-boofta-boofta," and—under the name Gas—a collection of towering ambient work, a profound meditation on music and history. It's what Schoenberg would produce if he'd lived into the sampling age."
-- Joshua Meggitt
06. Luciano - Fabric 41
Luciano - Fabric 41
"When news went out that Luciano was signed on for the next Fabric installment, people began to wonder whether he'd take the Villalobos route. But while much has been made by hardcore Luciano-fans and live set collectors that Luciano's unveiled a pretty stale assembly here—based on tracks played out from his sets or including 'old' standard-bearer Cadenza cuts like "Albertino"—Fabric 41 will sound to most home-listeners, or the many simply not lucky enough to catch Luciano live, as an intricate, season-muggy mix CD from one of dance music's most dependable producers, one which deftly balances its quirks with its more instantaneous appeals."
-- Derek Miller
05. DJ /rupture - Uproot
DJ /rupture - Uproot
"If you want to understand DJ/rupture's music without hearing it, read his blog. Recent musings glanced Croatian hip-hop, Arabic classical, books by Polish journalists on Iranian history and talking Mattel dolls that may or may not endorse Islam. Rupture's mixes are similar. They play on the way sounds clash, not blend, but Uproot—one of the best mixes of the year in any genre—proves what his past mixes didn't imagine possible: when used well, a little restraint is more freeing than chaos. Rupture's eclecticism isn't defined by sonic opposites on Uproot, but his ability—and willingness—to reconcile them."
-- Mike Powell
04. Metro Area - Fabric 43
Metro Area - Fabric 43
"Metro Area's music is so basically tasteful that the beginning of Fabric 43 threw me off at first. Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani don't just get on the mike to introduce themselves and their mix: They narrate the proceedings. Geist: "Yeah, ladies, clap, clap! Clap, clap, clap, clap! The disco experience is all about the claps." When the hell did these guys turn into comedians, anyway? The answer, of course, is lighten up. Especially since the next hour-plus—which, rest assured, passes without anymore jokes from the DJs—is, like the best of Geist and Jesrani's music, as singular and direct as biting into an orange."
-- Michaelangelo Matos
03. Appleblim - Dubstep Allstars: Vol. 06
Appleblim - Dubstep Allstars: Vol. 06
"Dubtsep Allstars Volume 6 reveals that Appleblim is a DJ more interested in evolutions within the genre than playing to its biggest hitters. He insists on taking the listener on a deep and varied excursion, and he's not afraid of slowing things down or speeding them up to get the results he wants. It's worth listening to this mix alongside his RA podcast, which takes the journeyman's mentality in an entirely different direction. Between the two mixes, Appleblim has showcased, if anything, just how versatile dubstep has become in absorbing the music that surrounds it."
-- Dimitri Nasrallah
02. Efdemin - Carry On, Pretend We're Not in the Room
Efdemin - Carry On, Pretend We're Not in the Room
"The handsomely titled Carry On, Pretend We're Not in the Room is Efdemin's first mix CD proper and follows on from what his 2007 RA podcast promised, mining the vibe of both the ballsy Detroit strut of Eddie "Flashin" Fowlkes and the bump-and-grind of Minimal Man, wiggling much closer to Stacey Pullen than Sven Väth. Capturing the effortless sense of panorama that oozes from one of his sets, it's an astounding mix that takes you from the deep house of Patrice Scott to the tribal techno of Dettmann & Klock to Photek's barely-there, sci-fi house monster "T'Raenon." Educating, entertaining and essential."
-- Piero Ruzzene
Marcel Dettmann - Berghain 02
01. Marcel Dettmann - Berghain 02
"Berghain 02 is something of a definitive statement of where techno is at now, and where it is going. It's a purist vision to be sure, but it is by no means limited: T++'s excellent "Mo 1" is dubsteppish, "Warped Mind" by Shed is standout neo-Detroit, while the piano riffs and gradual undulations of Radio Slave's "Tantakatan" underscores the link between Berghain and Rekids' crossover hypnotism. In short, it's something of a guided tour of the most innovative and forward-thinking techno around. Chances are we'll look back at Berghain 02 as a defining moment when techno got out of that locked groove, and started moving forward again."
-- Chris Hobson
Top 15 Remixes
15. Dave Aju - Crazy Place (Luciano «Likuid» Remix)
Dave Aju - Crazy Place (Luciano «Likuid» Remix)
"Veering 180 degrees from Aju's spacious, laid-back original, Luciano's 'Likuid' mix opens with a cut-up voice and percussion wig-out before submitting to a murderous bass thump that drives the track. Layers of his trademark percussion keep things moving along until 5:30, when a hammering synth riff is introduced and, by the time the jazzy keyboard solo hits a few minutes later, I had to check my pants for wetness."
-- Todd Hutlock
14. Shackleton - Death Is Not Final (T++ Remix)
Shackleton - Death Is Not Final (T++ Remix)
"Whereas Sam Shackleton's original cut was like dubstep's Tibetan Book of the Dead, Monolake member T++ sets sail for more Stygian domains with his Necronomicon-like remix. The flickering snares suggest panic, whereas the fractured rhythms weigh heavily over the still, black drones like Charon's oars beating on the waters of Hades, as the cavernous ebbs and flows seem to take over your ears and soul."
-- Chris Mann
13. Sety - Mogane (Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts Remix)
Sety - Mogane (Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts Remix)
"Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts take on 'Mogane' is a radical one, totally gutting the original and creating a boompty bouncer that owes as much to early acid house as it does to modern techno music. A pumping Chicago bassline grooves along to deep stabbing synths and hat-heavy percussion, and is sure to find favour with DJs straddling the line between deep house and more jacking fare."
-- Richard Carnes
12. Vladislav Delay - Recovery IDea (Andy Stott Remix)
Vladislav Delay - Recovery IDea (Andy Stott Remix)
"Modern Love's Andy Stott distils the thick atmosphere of Delay's original with his trademark metallic reductions and hi-hat/kick propulsion, and with a super smooth bassline adds swing and funk. The dark washes of the original now sit behind a sharp foreground that's dance floor friendly yet still deep and detailed enough for headphones. A wonderful combination of two very different, but complementary sound palettes."
-- Janet Leyton-Grant
11. Radio Slave - Grindhouse (Dubfire Terror Planet Remix)
Radio Slave - Grindhouse (Dubfire Terror Planet Remix)
"A desolate vision of armour-clad fiends marching across a techno landscape of relentless snares, hissing fissures of steam and acid-burn synths. An apocalyptic siren signifies the true beginning of the track and potentially the end of the world, while Danton Eeprom's ominous vocal creates an unassailable sense of impending metallic doom. Immense, formidable and not for the faint of heart."
-- Greg Sawyer
10. Kevin Saunderson feat. Inner City - Good Love (Luciano Remix)
Kevin Saunderson feat. Inner City - Good Love (Luciano's Good Love Remix)
"Luciano's take on Inner City's 'Good Love' works Paris Grey's vocals in layers over a stripped down groove that sizzles along over a lightly acidic one-note riff and chattering Cadenza-style percussion. Neatly summarizing Luciano's recent turn toward deeper house sounds, 'Good Love' fuses Saunderson's soulful techno with the Chilean School of Minimalism for one of the highlights of 2008, as well as the History Elevate series."
-- Todd Hutlock
09. Ane Brun - Headphone Silence
(Henrik Schwarz Remix / Dixon Edit)
Ane Brun - Headphone Silence (Henrik Schwarz Remix / Dixon Edit)
"Brun's vocals are delicate—seemingly ready to wither away as soon as they emerge from her mouth. Innervisions label head Dixon takes advantage in his edit of Schwarz's mix, drawing out the intro for 90 seconds before dropping the vocal. He maintains the languid pacing throughout, adding a kick drum here, the interlocking synth lines there and then ties it all up with a sedate string-laden breakdown."
-- Todd L. Burns
08. Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia - Dead Souls
(Radio Slave Long Distance Kiss Remix)
Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia - Dead Souls (Radio Slave Long Distance Kiss Remix)
"Mlle Caro and Franck Garcia's 'Dead Souls' was a rich and emotional pop-house track, but Radio Slave wanted his remix to take the song closer to its title's dead heart. Edwards doubles up the length, jacks up the kick drum, and strips away the jangled guitars to deliver a bleepy and hollow minimal marathon that voids any intonation in Caro and Garcia's voices, so that dead souls were themselves singing the lyrics."
-- Dimitri Nasrallah
07. TRG - Broken Heart (Martyn's DCM Remix)
TRG - Broken Heart (Martyn's DCM Remix)
"Martyn takes TRG's sombre but hard-edged original and turns it into a melancholic but hopeful garage cum dubstep beauty. The vocals have been detuned; they sit lower in the mix and build a wistful atmosphere over the Detroit-sounding pads, a broken beat-esque drum workout and a driving but warm bassline. The angry and painful post break-up heart of the original is in effect turned into the sexy and lustful yearning of unreciprocated love."
-- Karl Tryggvason
06. Sascha Dive - Deepest America (Moodymann Remix)
Sascha Dive - Deepest America (Moodymann Remix)
"Cynics might see Moodymann's remix of 'Deepest America' as Kenny Dixon Jr's statement on European house music. Riding along an infectiously percussive shuffle, countless sampled disco loops are layered around a yearning gospel vocal ('Music! Music! Ain't no soul no more!'), before a pulsating space-age arpeggio flies in out of nowhere to throb you into submission. It's quite a journey for a seven-minute house record—and one that's executed perfectly by Dixon."
-- Richard Carnes
05. Matias Aguayo - Minimal (DJ Koze Mix)
Matias Aguayo - Minimal (DJ Koze Mix)
"Focusing on the guitar lick, DJ Koze reimagines 'Minimal' as gently swelling disco reminiscent of Modjo's 'Lady.' This track has that 'iron fist in a velvet glove' thing going on—the sounds and style are smooth but with a restrained power and a constant escalation of tension that's likely to end up with people being surprised at how hard they've been dancing."
-- Jacob Wright
04. Sascha Funke - Mango Cookie (DJ Koze's Pink Moon Rmx)
Sascha Funke - Mango Cookie (DJ Koze's Pink Moon Rmx)
"DJ Koze's epic re-imagining of 'Mango' takes elements from a completely different song ('A Fortune Cookie Symphony'), house music (the unyielding kick that only takes 120 seconds to appear) and outer space (just about everything else). It's less remix than it is jumping-off point, as though Koze came into the studio and set out to forget everything he knew about dance floor dynamics. God bless him."
-- Todd L. Burns
03. Hercules & Love Affair - Blind (Frankie Knuckles Vocal)
Hercules & Love Affair - Blind (Frankie Knuckles Vocal)
"Promos of 'Blind' in its original form appeared early enough for it to feature in DJ sets last NYE. But Knuckles' utterly infectious, extended take took the record to an entirely new level, ensuring it became one of 2008's most enduring club anthems. Though incongruous initially, Antony Hegarty's soaring vocals, that nagging trumpet line and a bassline warm enough to double as a duvet all combine to devastating effect."
-- Dave Stenton
02. Sebbo - Watamu Beach (Moritz von Oswald Rework)
Sebbo - Watamu Beach (Moritz von Oswald Rework)
"I hate to say it, but it's embarrassing how much better the Moritz remix is compared to the original. Where the original sounds like a hurried attempt at a current trend, Oswald's has all the time in the world. Like an exercise in deep, meditative breathing, it unfolds into as much space as it needs, holds it for as long as it wants and then lets it go in a wonderful ambient fade-out."
-- Peter Chambers
Ricardo Villalobos - Minimoonstar (Shackleton Remix)
01. Ricardo Villalobos - Minimoonstar (Shackleton Remix)
"Shackleton's beats are (relatively speaking) very straight sounding, even though they're made from popping hand claps under heavy flanges and what could well be a pair of large, metallic scissors positioned in disturbing proximity to your head/phone/cable. Beneath all these clippy snippets, however, is a gentle kick that marks time until a softer four-to-floor comes in, sending it all forward into… Doom? Bliss? Something between the two. With this returned favour and Ricardo's previous mix for Shackleton, the duo have managed to elevate 'dance music' into something strange, unsettling, startling, and wonderful."
-- Peter Chambers
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