Harkin & Raney - Word to the Wise

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  • Eamon Harkin will be a name familiar to regulars of New York's Sunday Best and Mister Saturday Night parties, but Steve Raney will probably be less so, despite a smooth disco cut last year on Buzzard Gulch. That sound—warm, velvet '80s disco house—is continued on their debut solo release for Throne of Blood. Vintage Roland hi-hats and handclaps alongside a resonant bass motif plod smoothly through the title track, as various lush chord patterns come in and out at a whim. The structure is an interesting one, amplifying the dizzy, circular nature of the riffs themselves, with the combined centripetal force pulling the helpless dancer into a lush, confused world of disco balls and Quaaludes. Fans of chunky analogue sounds will love Populette's remix; it's so full of them there's little room for anything else. The round, filtered bassline riff, the arpeggios rising throughout the track, even the unsettling pad that shivers just on the edge of immediate recognition sounds thick. It's hard to say which is more serious, the remix or the original, and they both feel like the same, deep time of the morning, but they're distinct moods, perhaps occupying the same place and time but in parallel universes. C'hantal's "The Realm" is yet again dealt with in "Casual Occupation." For me, this vocal and its legion of similarly spaceheaded offshoots are far too ubiquitous, although it's got something of a relevant place in an early release from these NY club heads. The underneath is tasteful: more swirling, syncopated, funky bassline disco programmed in a way that approaches Metro Area's grasp of simultaneous classicness and cutting-edge. Great Weekend's Master Khan goes, fantastically (and that's not to say that the precursors aren't good), in a completely different direction with his remix. It's like Luke Vibert's most experimental material, but with even more random scattiness. It's in 6/8 time but flirts with straight 4/4, with a hobbling bassline, and squelches and moronically insistent dischords visiting like an uninvited guest, popping their head round the door and freaking out everyone in the room.
  • Tracklist
      01. Word to the Wise 02. Word to the Wise (Populette Remix) 03. Casual Occupation 04. Casual Occupation (Master Khan Recharge)
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