- Forgiven is said to be Franc Sayol's "proper" Hivern debut, but it's not the first Mistakes Are OK 12-inch. In 2012, the label put out a three-track remix package whose originals were nowhere to be seen. Kassem Mosse, Mix Mup, Downliners Sekt and BNJMN offered obscured clues as to what a Mistakes Are OK song might sound like. Between the runny ambient house of "Koala" and "Crumbs"'s Burial-esque garage was "Best Before," a slow shimmy of cut-up choral chants and percussion scattered like wrinkled scraps on a noticeboard.
I didn't expect to find so much of the same on "Forgiven," and even more surprising was how elegantly Sayol pulls off his tricky blend. (Shakers shuffle faintly behind "Forgiven"'s surface noise, recalling Downliners Sekt's rework of "Crumbs.") There's another reason "Forgiven" has a ring of familiarity to it: it shares John Talabot's bittersweet way with melody and his textural density. Giegling's Edward turns one remix of "Forgiven" into a hypnotic drip of hand percussion and animal sounds; his other one eschews experimental strokes to become a persuasive dance floor bomb with a bright, tip-toeing arpeggio. Forgiven is a prelude to an album from Sayol, which has its work cut out to match Edward's and his predecessor's imaginative remixes.
TracklistA1 Forgiven
A2 Forgiven (Edward's Alternate World)
B Forgiven (Edward Remix)