- Impeccable sound design, innovative arrangement and classy composition make René Pawlowitz's productions as sweet on the ears as any electronic music you're likely to hear. The records he releases through Power House aren't any different, but listening to them front-to-back in your living room makes about as much sense as chewing on a wad of bay leaves—potent and direct, they're meant to add spice to DJ sets, not sit solo. Home. House. Hardcore., an official mix made up solely of Pawlowitz's Power House material, puts his aliases Head High and WK7 into a more approachable package.
The music itself, spanning releases from 2010 to the present, sounds as good as ever. As Shed, Pawlowitz tends to push boundaries, but on many of his other aliases, Head High and WK7 especially, he makes a point of not reinventing the wheel. But by intentionally skirting brilliance, he tends to arrive there anyway. You'd be hard-pressed to find harder-hitting drums anywhere in the business—gnarled by distortion and punctuated by claustrophobic kicks, they're as sharp as industrial diamonds, and they leave little room for standing still. On WK7's "Avalanche," a ride cymbal pumps over a fathoms-deep bass drum, both compressed to delightfully monstrous proportions. You hear the technique across this corner of Pawlowitz's discography, though there's also a softer side to plenty of Power House's releases. Megatrap, the excellent Head High album from last summer, lightened the load by stuffing ebullient melodies into the workmanlike rumble. In lesser hands, all this stagecraft could come off as oppressive or cheesy; they sort of do in Pawlowitz's, too, but he has so much style and confidence as a producer that you're willing to follow him just about anywhere.
On Home. House. Hardcore., you'll find no complicated, computer-aided, stem-blended mixing—in fact, you may spot the occasional nudge of the CDJ platter (never to the point of being sloppy, but enough to remind you there's a human being on the other end of this mix). What we get are just the tracks, artfully sequenced and paced to keep your head furiously nodding. The mix presents the tracks roughly in chronological order, though one new cut sneaks in: "More Music," a surprisingly light-footed and dreamy WK7 cut that recalls the glory days of Pawlowitz's dormant Wax alias. Home. House. Hardcore. asks you to take in a lot of an admittedly brutal aesthetic with hardly a moment to come up for air. But it's a great way in for the uninitiated, and the equivalent of a bucket of ice water poured over the head for anyone pumping up for a long, sweaty weekend of raving.
Tracklist01. Head High - Hex Pad
02. Head High - It's A Love Thing (Piano Invasion)
03. Head High - It's A Love Thing (Power Cut)
04. WK7 - Avalanche
05. WK7 - Higher Power (Original Mix)
06. WK7 - Higher Power (Hardcore PCK Mix)
07. Head High - Rave (Dirt Mix)
08. WK7 - Do It Yourself
09. Head High - Keep On Talking (Dirt Mix)
10. Head High - Megatrap (Real Mix)
11. Head High - Power Seat
12. WK7 - More Music
13. Head High - Megatrap (Mix Mix)
14. Head High - Hardcore