Justus Köhncke is a musician whose "failures" tend to result from the public's musical palate not being as broad as his own. As was previously noted, this isn't the case with his aptly named 2008 album, Safe and Sound. The two tracks remixed here were two of the standouts from the album, and Kompakt are on red-hot form right now having just released the summery Koze mix of Matias Aguayo's "Minimal" and an icy but similarly stunning effort from Burger & Voigt, so hopes are high for a bit of a treat here.
The originals of both "Yacht" and "$26" found Köhncke in expansive mood, ambling gently from one musical theme to the next rather than driving directly to a conclusion. Both the remixes here are more single-minded than the originals with all the trade-offs that implies.
Aaron Carl goes straight for the attack on his version of "$26," simultaneously pulling out the beatiest and most dramatic aspects of the original and turning it into the best kind of sweaty basement jackfest. He alternates passages of head-down, hips-moving focus on beats and bass with eyes-closed, chest-out strings that tug on the heart as much as the feet. If you can stretch reality enough to imagine a "deep" version of "Rocker" you might be somewhere close to capturing what this track sounds like.
Robert Babicz also toughens up "Yacht," but somewhat less successfully. He adds harder beats and dials up the acid a little but the end result, while pleasantly hypnotic, feels flat and pedestrian compared to the gleeful meanderings of the original. There's a sting in the tail, however, with a lovely little shaker sound that comes in for the last minute or so. Good opportunity for some tech-ed up jocks to do some looping there, I'd say.
Buy Justus Köhncke - Safe and Sound Remixes Part 1 at
Tracklist: Justus Köhncke - Safe and Sound Remixes Part 1
A $26 (Aaron Carl Mix)
B Yacht (Robert Babicz Mix)
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