Social Disco Club - Peaceful Warrior

  • Share
  • Peaceful Warrior, the latest Social Disco Club 12-inch on Is It Balearic...?, owes as much to the oft-appropriated and sometimes-maligned metacontinent of Balearia as it does to deep house's gravity and earnestness-bordering-on-fromage. Humberto Matias, one man Social Disco band, presents a deep, acidy, ramped down house chugger in the vocal-less original. The warmth of the guitars and flute bits are given some dramatic gravity against the slithering acid line (which is kept for all of the reworkings). This track is definitely looking backwards more than it is forward, but it succeeds as his interest in specific sounds comes across as earnest in its efforts. It's not pastiche to cash in on a genre renaissance; it's genuine attachment to a set of sounds attached to different times/movements and their re-configuring. Esoterians Soft Rocks and Lovefingers combine for the Jesus Convention remix, a version whose rangle-jangle saloon stomping layered guitars recalls the Rub N Tug remix of Wild Rumpus from a few years back. There is a certain crazed density to the layers in this one, and it feels less structured like a song and more like a car careening down some nightmare swamp backroads, a nice diversion from the restraint of the original. LA's Pacific Horizons take the acid line and some horn parts from the original and take off on some beautiful, vaguely mythological tour of Annexia, perfect for sundowns and sunups alike. Like most of their work, ideas brood and compound for five or six minutes before the payoff is delivered, but, unlike many tracks that build this way, it doesn't telegraph its destination from the outset. It encapsulates the timeless bittersweet and fragile sides of Balearic quite effectively. Finally, Swiss boys Pharao Black Magic contribute the accessible take that achieves the more obviously peaktime/Tensnake-esque party fun time Italo straightforwardness. Amidst the seriousness of the other cuts, this one comes off refreshing and necessary as well. The result is a thoroughly well-rounded EP, with some really thoughtful remixes that would all play well throughout different phases of a Balearic-disco-adjacent night. In fact, because it's all instrumental and the remixes aren't super derivative of the original, you could probably get away with playing the whole thing without wearing out your welcome.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Peaceful Warrior A2 Peaceful Warrior (Soft Rocks Jesus Convention remix) B1 Peaceful Warrior (Pacific Horizons remix) B2 Peaceful Warrior (Pharao Black Magic remix)
RA