Raeyk – Asleep Remixes
Artist: Raeyk
Title: Asleep (Remixes)
Label: Varianz
Release Date: September 2011
Genre: Techno
Medium: Vinyl 12″/Digital Download
As you have done so many times before and will be doing a countless number of times after, you find yourself checking out new releases, be it on Beatport, from Clone or Decks or any other vendor of records. Opening up your list of favourited artists and seeing if there’s anything new from one of them is often the first thing I do and few things excite me more at that time than seeing that lovely white dot or other indicator of new material next to a select few artists. In my case that particular selection includes names like Shed, Skudge, Peter van Hoesen, Aiken, Klock or Dettmann, Frozen Border, Fengler, Surgeon and Regis to name but a few.
What makes these names special is the fact that somehow they hardly ever disappoint. Sure, there might be one or two releases that aren’t as interesting as their other material or there could be tracks I dislike at first. When push comes to shove however the former still trump 95% of other newly released blatantly boring music and the latter often simply take some time to warm up to or at first get overshadowed by the more popular A-side of an EP. Point in case for me was Ben Klock’s “Tracks from 07” EP, I bought it for Red Alert but where I haven’t played that track in quite some time now, B-side Viscoplastic often sneaks into my longer sets still. I will not explore the admittedly fascinating question of what it is that these producers apparently have that so many others seem to lack, simply because the answer to that question would both be different for each individual as well as possibly form the main thesis for a ninety page essay.
Samuli Kemppi and Dario Zenker are both relatively recent additions to this exclusive list, a spot on which I would like to believe to be a sought-after possession. Each taking on the same track,“Asleep”, by Berlin-based Raeyk, both producers prove that my decision was the right one to make. Ilian Tape labelhead Zenker turns the original into a captivating middle-ground between techno and house where chopped up rides meet with a hidden cowbell and simple, powerful piano-like chords relentlessy press down on an underlying stirring synthline that never manages to truly rid itself of its yoke. If timed well this remix could do dubby wonders in any great techno-set or add some rough edges to a more house-oriented one.
A complete contrast comes from Finnish Samuli Kemppi, a producer that has been around for close to a decade but only quite recently gained more deserved attention. Employing the art of delicacy, one that he has shown to have mastered before, Kemppi restructures the original in a manner that at first listen or skip-through might fool the average listener (dare I say untrained ear?) into thinking the approach taken is minimalistic, resulting in the track only catching some steam towards the end. Nothing could be further from the truth however as this remix truly is a sum of its parts; each sound carefully and often times very subtlely placed, creating a gritty, forbidding remix relying on interplay between a sinister growling synth, slightly filtered piano sounds and intricate percussion.
All in all, this remix package delivers with two strong, contrasting and highly useful remixes making it very much worthwile.
Tracklist:
01 Asleep (Dario Zenker Remix)
02 Asleep (Samuli Kemppi Remix)
Listen to previews of this EP on Decks.de
Review by Harrison van der Vliet (Showhost Default)
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