- In French, ‘mécaniques remontées’ is an expression referring to the action of breaking a motor engine into its constitutive parts then rebuilding it. As a song title, it serves as a fitting metaphor for French duo Sweet Light’s sound, whose modern take on acid house can be both seen as a deconstruction and as a homage. With its bouncy, acidic bassline, chopped, abstract female vocals, and overall effervescence, ‘Mécaniques Remontées’ was a near perfect set opener for Ivan Smagghe in 2004 (see his ‘Suck my Deck’ mix for proofs). Freak N Chic is re-releasing it these days, and it’s American producer Butane’s new take on the track that should get our attention now.
Butane’s remix is serious business, removing the original’s sense of fun and abandon for a deeper and somehow more repetitive outcome. You get more echo and something that sounds like a reverberating guitar, but really, it’d be hard for even Sweet Light themselves to even recognize the original track at all. Not a bad remix, just a let’s-stick-to-the-original product that makes the idea of a re-release pretty pointless if you ask me. That said, with only a few sparse releases (check out Sweet Light’s new Turbo 12”, too) here and there since 2002, we’d be crazy to deny ‘Mécaniques Remontées’ a second chance in the spotlight.