- Luke Slater completes his rehabilitation from pop star in waiting to reinstated techno hero with this remix package. Slater has impressed with his recent take on Fabrice Lig, but on this occasion, he faces stiff remix competition from James Ruskin and Function & Jerome Sydenham. The unlikely duo's version of "GT" is brilliant in its simplicity and design, with the American producers keeping the momentum going through the use of pounding drums, doubled up, reverberated claps and a niggling, insistent acid line. When, with two minutes remaining, an ominous chord sequence kicks in, the listener is reminded of Secret Cinema's 1994 classic "Timeless Altitude," but in the main, this is truly contemporary techno.
Likewise James Ruskin's remix: Like the title track on his new single, the UK producer delivers a repetitive metallic rhythm, cloaked in mysterious, reverberating sounds. Like the sound of a BMW 3 series whizzing through a mountain tunnel at 3 AM, Ruskin's version is majestic and fine-tuned, every component working in perfect unison. Despite these high standards, Slater shines the brightest. Of his three remixes, the "Drone Sector" take is the least extreme, its acid-flecked construction sounding like "Surface Noise" but never quite hitting the jugular. The two Rhythm & Beats versions are entirely different, however. The first one starts with a discordant riff, and is quickly joined by a growling, noisy rhythm, while the second resonates to the sound of a wall of metallic feedback and is underpinned by jagged, cheese-wire percussion and thundering drums. That neither relents until synapses snap or systems are levelled speaks volumes about Slater's remarkable comeback.
Tracklist 01. GT (James Ruskin's VW Remix)
02. GT (Function & Jerome Sydenham Remix)
03. GT (P.A.S Drone Sector remix)
04. GT (P.A.S. Rhythm & Beats 1)
05. GT P.A.S. (Rhythm & Beats 2)