Efdemin - Chicago Remixes 2

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  • You've gotta envy anyone who gets tapped to remix Efdemin. His music is so supple, his sounds so well rounded, there must be a wealth to work with. At the same time, his tracks are so spare, there's plenty of room to expand upon his vision without distorting it. Listen to them back to back, and you might not even guess that "Night Train" is the source of Fred P's remix. They have a different kind of heft, a different approach to transparency: the original is mixed down like a cool mountain stream, while the Fred P reshape is muddy and sluggish. But both artists are playing the long game, drawing out the arc so far that their muted grooves feel as natural, and uncomplicated, as breathing. Deadbeat's "Shoeshine" remix, likewise, doesn't exactly take after the dusky, jacking original, which is tougher and more emphatic. Deadbeat, like Fred P, opts for the slack route, luxuriating in downy synths and a laidback house beat; where the original flexes, the rework billows. Rndm's dub of "There Will Be Singing" doesn't sound like a dub, at first, but it is, reaching deep into the guts of the original and tweaking the EQs to turn out a version that's strikingly different in feel—crisp, reduced and sinewy. Efdemin's "Future Edit" of the same might be the best thing on the record, with punched-up percussion that lends an entirely new harmonic dimension, thanks to the incidental tuning of bells and taut rawhide.
  • Tracklist
      01. Shoeshine (Deadbeat Remix) 02. There Will Be Singing (Efdemin Future Edit) 03. Nighttrain (Fred P Reshape) 04. There Will Be Singing (RNDM Dub)
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