- Giants, here, loads of 'em. A quick rundown: "Positive Noise" is a collaboration of System 7 with A Guy Called Gerald. System 7 is Steve Hillage, an experimental legend who's been around since the late '60s, along with his partner and fellow Gong ex-bandmate Miquette Giraudy. A.Mochi is less-known but well respected, his warm, heavy techno having been put out on Mote-Evolver and Cocoon amongst others. Carl Craig is Carl Craig.
All very well, but this would mean exactly squat if the music wasn't any good. But, oh hang on, it's fanflippingtastic. Carl Craig's remix is on the A side, so let's start there: It's a track which broods dormant for most of it, keeping you engaged with some ancillary lines and flourishes, breaking out only sometimes. When it does, though, it's powerful and glorious. He also knows System 7, having been a collaborator on the project in the '90s, and he respects the accessibility of the original while lending it a more serious edge with some well-placed, out-of-tune descending sounds.
The original, from the recent UP album, is a club track too, but with a somewhat sunnier disposition and a fruitier beat. Its unsubtle blissfulness is hardly fashionable, but I could see it being pretty transcendental at the right place and time (beach festivals, sunsets, etc.). A.Mochi's is a whirring techno workout that spends most of its time chugging along functionally, taking a short break in the middle for some starry-twilight shimmering pads and delayed late-Floydian guitars.
TracklistA Positive Noise (Carl Craig Remix)
AA1 Positive Noise (A.Mochi Remix)
AA2 Positive Noise