- While it may seem odd to issue a remix single of two old tracks, surely Pacou (aka Lars Lewandowski) must have felt like he had no choice once he heard Rod Modell and Mike Huckaby had signed on, arguably the two hottest producers in Motown. Modell's Deepchord Mix of 'Sound of Thought' (originally issued on the now-defunct LL imprint in 1999) finds impossibly heavy layers of pounding bass drum getting worked over with extreme prejudice for 11 minutes, smothered in Modell's standard analog synth washes (as well as some almost-house chords), charging congas, and what sounds like steam being released from the General Motors plant. Oh, and it's got a drop-out that might just make you faint when it comes rushing back in. The result is the most menacing and predatory thing Modell's issued in ages, as well as the most groovy, far more urban grit than cosmic space and all the better for it. I can't begin to guess what got into Modell here to make him so aggressive, but let me be the first to say: More, please.
Shocking as it may sound, Mike Huckaby's mix of 2007's 'All It Takes' matches and nearly eclipses Modell's mix. Starting with the same heavy-dub template, Huckaby turns up the dance quotient even higher, with a barely restrained deep-house throb of bass and hi-hats, the Detroit rumble smoothed out via Berlin-style atmospherics. By the time he introduces the secondary loops and analog buzzes, Huckaby has already nailed it; the rest is just icing on the cake.
It's hard to choose a winner here, but surely that's the goal of a successful remix project, one that seldom is actually achieved. Danceable dub techno doesn't get any better than this.
TracklistA Sound Of Thought (DeepChord Mix)
B All It Takes (Mike Huckaby SYNTH Remix)