- Venetian duo Cosmic Cowboys craft deep, emotional house music in the Kompakt vein. This remix EP, released in the wake of their debut album, has clear overlaps with the 20-year-old Cologne label. For one, there's the personnel—Matthias Meyer and Kollektive Turmstrasse are both associated with the imprint, and Dub Taylor's provided various remixes as Tigerskin—but the sound itself is a bloodless version of the tears-on-the-dance floor techno Kompakt excels at.
Cosmic Cowboys' original centres on a pair of piano riffs—one a rolling bass motif, one a fleeting heartstring-tugger—but neither is quite mournful enough to lodge in the heart or the ear. Matthias Meyer & Patlac's take is more successful, with its growling sub invoking some tension, but at eight minutes long it's a touch flabby. Kollektiv Turmstrasse's version of "If You Leave Tonight" would be a solid dub, but its minimal, undulating groove is spoiled by one of those spoken word vocals that confuses cloying metaphors for emotional depth. In Dub Taylor's hands "Leaving" becomes an ethereal deep house cut. Or at least, it seems ethereal at first, but then it loops an underwhelming idea too long with only an organ lick for variety. Making people cry and dance, it seems, is harder than it looks.
TracklistA1 Zero Gravity Love
A2 Zero Gravity Love (Matthias Meyer & Patlac Remix)
B1 If You Leave Tonight (Kollektiv Turmstrasse Remix)
B2 Leaving (Dub Taylor's Y-Triggered Dub Mix)