- Anders Trentemøller's music has always been touched by dub and now, in this collaboration with Echocord's DJ Lab, he goes properly dub crazy. "Rauta" (Girl Remix) opens with a classic Maurizio groove that moves through the wash and swirl you expect from an Echocord release, but there is also a strange energy here. Lasers, diced vocals and special effects glide haphazardly across the frame, evoking the spontaneity and occasional aimlessness of a live jam session. You can hear Trentemøller moving the furniture in Echocord's carefully arranged living room. Around the five-minute mark, a spiky synthesizer unexpectedly kidnaps the track, carrying it down an evil electro path before circling back to atmospheric dub techno.
A stern and big-shouldered affair, "Rauta" (Boy Remix) is the mirror image of the "Girl Remix." Opening with a skeletal framework that hits its stride after the first minute, the track hews to a classic Mad Professor template as a sparse beat moves through a daisy chain of reverb and delay pedals.
My only complaint with both tracks is the amount of effects. There's so much frosty reverb, it's hard to find your footing here. Lasers shoot, flangers flare and every now and then something launches and takes off. This compulsive knob-twiddling buries the guts of each song under a glossy sheen that makes it feel slightly remote. Aside from this cosmetic quibble, however, these are two high-powered dub tracks—each one worthy of the estimable names printed on the record sleeve.
Tracklist A Rauta (Girls Mix)
B Rauta (Boys Mix)