- Ali Wells, AKA Perc, likes it raw and strange. He's only responsible for two mixes of "Mandrake" here, but his sensibility is hardly done away with when Dustin Zahn reworks it three times and Metalogic once. All of them partake in a similarly into-the-wormhole sensibility—function-oriented, hypnotic, senses-deranged techno that catches you short—that's laid down in Perc's basic blueprint, and refined in artier, moodier terms on his fine "Steptoe Dub."
That's not to say "Mandrake" isn't improved by others' ministrations. The original bumps along OK for 7.5 minutes, its synth patterns opening and closing, as if on a radar, regularly but with some variation. Zahn's first crack at it, the "Made for Italy Edit," opens it up with a nice bass undulation and filtering right out of the Tresor label. The hissier German Muscle remix and more grinding Sunday Morning dub fill things out nicely as well. Metalogic's remix is more severe and straight-ahead than any of them, and maybe the most arresting version. It's a good batch to be atop.
Tracklist A1 Mandrake
A2 Mandrake (Dustin Zahn's Made For Italy Edit)
B1 Mandrake (Perc's Steptoe Dub)
B2 Mandrake (Metalogic Remix)
Digital: Mandrake (Dustin Zahn's German Muscle remix)
Digital: Mandrake (Dustin Zahn's Sunday Morning dub)