- Echocord regular Mikkel Metal continues the three-part colored vinyl series highlighting tracks from Peaks and Troughs backed by exclusive remixes with a three-tracker that showcases his trademark style with a few new wrinkles. Featuring two LP tracks, it's a release that bodes very well indeed for the LP. As with the lead track on Part 1, "Get Over" features the inimitable voice of Paul St. Hilaire (formerly known as Tikiman), and the mix of his deep, soulful vocals and Metal's dub/techno/click hybrid goes down smoothly, bubbling with percussive energy and a haunted Spaghetti Western theme.
St. Hilaire's vocals add a texture and melodic heft missing from much of dub techno, and the track is busy and active, a perfect antidote to the avalanche of cookie-cutter dub tracks that have been clogging the racks for the last few months. The original version of "Frico" is an up-tempo (well, for dub techno, anyway) workout with some serious bounce to it. It sounds as if Metal's machines are infested with racquetballs, their rubbery tones affecting everything coming out of the speakers on a molecular level, echoing and bounding off of each other into space.
Part 1 closed with a Cassy remix, and Part 2's flip is filled here with a stunning take on "Frico" from Pole. Upping the tempo even further with a relentless click track that's soon joined by a crackling hi-hat, Betke runs the original's elastic tape through his unique set of filters and emerges with his busiest and most floor-friendly track in ages, a rattling, rhythmic journey that abandons Betke's standard stealth-static attack for an altogether more aggressive result. If the prospect of buying the separate singles just to get the remixes had you on the fence about these releases, rest assured that Pole's version is worth the price of admission alone. Betke's been on a remixing roll of late (check his versions of Shackleton's "Shortwave" and Trentemøller's "Miss You" if you missed them), and "Frico" may very well be the best of the bunch.
Tracklist A1 Get Over feat. Paul St. Hilaire
A2 Frico
B1 Frico (Pole Remix)