Music Reviews
Valley Of Paradise remixes by Psychemagik – Psychemagik
Cosmic duo Psychemagik’s existence may be surrounded in mystery, but their music has been anything but hidden. Over the past few years, whether it’s with their vast collection of remixes and edits (even if you didn’t know it was them, their re-rub of Fleetwood Mac’s Everywhere has probably been played to half the country by now, and they’ve worked their magic on everyone from Azari & III, Time And Space Machine and Talking Heads) or their originals and on their own eponymous label, no genre has been left unturned, and for their latest they’ve let friends do the talking with a quartet of remixes of their own blissed-out Valley Of Paradise from last year.
Rayko’s opener sees the Spaniard in particularly fine form, its slimmed-down cut of modern disco taking the original’s sun-drenched grooves and building momentum slowly through low-end drive, guitar licks and revolving chords before the vocal drops. In the first of two elongated interpretations, Time And Space Machine stay closest to the original’s spirit and melody, focussing their power on the vocal, now swimming in reverb, as they add a dreamy, electronic edge. Disco don Greg Wilson’s brings live percussion and analogue leanings to the fray, stretching its groove and strings out to mesmeric effect, while Toby Tobias’ heads-down mix is a sprawling, dubby effort, its percussive layers and pads giving it a shimmering sonic feel.
http://soundcloud.com/psychemagik
Lazy Jane by Deadbeat – BLKRTZ
Deadbeat’s much-anticipated (and promised) album on his own BLKRTZ imprint in 2011 started another chapter in Canadian Scott Monteith’s rich and diverse musical history. The erstwhile Montreal resident’s transition from technological wizard to fully-fledged artist has been a slow-burning path that’s moved into its second decade, with much of his output on the revered ~scape label. When that finally closed last year, the newly-located Berliner launched BLKRTZ with a new album that showcased his wide-angled sound, and after a remix EP comes Lazy Jane, Deadbeat’s first new work since the long player.
For fans of the English dubstep sound championed by the likes of Burial towards the end of the last decade, there’s much to admire on the original. But far from a simple facsimile, there’s character and style here, and melody and arrangements that leans to the live sound the likes of Fink have made their own. Centred around Danuel Tate’s vocoded vox, the reverb and slow-burning chords are a heady combination. As if to prove that no genre is a boundary, Deadbeat’s own 909 Dub on the flip is a superb contrast, its slowly ebbing bassline is moulded to vintage percs, with the chord pattern amped up with the bpms, and Tate’s vocal still having its effect, locked into a rhythmic loop.
