- To use a well-worn football maxim, the latest from John Talabot's Hivern Disc imprint is a game of two halves. The A side is classic house, both slow and anthemic, while the flip has its roots closer to techno and is fast and physical.
Newcomer Pional kicks off with "In Another Room" which almost seems almost too slow at first. But the illusion of the plodding beat is gradually broken by the accumulating rattle of percussive accents and the empowering smear of the choral underbelly. Interlocking and jagged vocals gently raise the roof with a plaintive call. An unusual breakdown seems to signal a premature end, but rather than do the obvious and slam the track back in, the vocals and beat are allowed to drift back before the real finale. Rebolledo's mix hardly toys with the original, keeping true to the pace while emphasising the bass at the expense of some of the vocal power.
"Cocoples De Gana" mixes B-horror sound effects with War of the Worlds shortwave melodies and a bubbling bass driven forward by a lovely subliminal fuzz wash. Basic Soul Units remix harnesses the rollicking energy of the bass riff and empowers it with a heavy kick drum and a hint of old school acid madness. Totally extroverted and peaktime, it feels like the last panicked minutes of a cup final compared to the lofty dreams of the A side.
On the bench are the two digital-only mixes. Pional's own redux of "In Another Room" falls somewhere between the melancholic deliberations of the original and the more forceful dance floor friendly tracks on the B-side, while Basic Soul Unit's alternative remix of "Cocoples De Gana" takes the acid hints and turns them into a retro-styled squelch fest with big Detroit-style drum licks.
Tracklist A1 In Another Room
A2 In Another Room (Rebolledo Remix)
B1 Cocoples De Gana
B2 Cocoples De Gana (Basic Soul Unit Remix)
Digital: Cocoples de Gana (Basic Soul Unit alternative remix)
Digital: In another Room (Redux Version)