Alex Smoke/Tolga Fidan - Neds/Ilsa (Remixes)

  • Share
  • I dunno what they're putting in the water 'round Vakant way, but I'm glad they're not reading me bedtime stories. Not that they're likely to at any stage in the near future, but when you get sucked into their brilliantly creepy world of minimal noir, you'll know what I mean. The second installment in their remix series sees stalwart Alex Smoke and newcomer Tolga Fidan fiddle with each other's bits - Smoke goes to town on 'Ilsa', while Fidan re-jigs 'Neds'. Which is where we begin. Things start pleasantly enough with a skipping bassline and playful off-beat ping-pong percussion, but that soon gets swallowed by a terrifying synth, black-as-night 303 farts and an omnipresent unsettling, evil-pitch drone. Fidan keeps things rocking with odd drops, wonky synth surges and rattlesnake shakers, and keeps it interesting with wooden percussion and what sounds like an oboe. Surely a first. Alex Smoke - a man backing away from the new definition of 'minimal' like a trance fan at a Pansonic gig - counter-attacks with a starker, unpredictable take on 'Ilsa'. He sets out his stall with whiplash hats and clipped, busy percussion, which get briefly overpowered by a delightful dash of warm digital fuzz, before madcap phreakuencies elbow their way in and take us to the break. Things get a bit Si Begg for a mo - low-end 303, chopped electro beats - before everything gets pulled back together in an excellently anti-climactic instant. Two more mini-minimal-symphonies from the label that (s)cares.
  • Tracklist
      A Alex Smoke - Neds (Tolga Fidan Remix) B Tolga Fidan - Ilsa (Alex Smoke Remix)
RA