- Carl Cox also appears on Tenaglia's first EP in more than a decade.
- The prospect of big-room outpost Hot Creations delivering Danny Tenaglia's first solo track in over a decade doesn't sound particularly appealing. The backstory drags another festival headliner into this record's sales pitch: the canonized '90s house producer was inspired to make the centerpiece, a conga workout titled "Don't Turn Your Back," after filling in for Richie Hawtin at Detroit's Movement festival. If Hot Creations' recent decision to commission a remix from Ricardo Villalobos signalled Jamie Jones's desire to steer his label toward headsier territory, then this package from Tenaglia is two steps back into big rooms.
Yet "Don't Turn Your Back" exceeds expectations. Tenaglia's original, a hand drum beat with sparse melodic content and a stout vocal, is pretty restrained and stripped-down. The saxophone shredding on Harry Romero's version and the sample of an audience cheering during the breakdown on Mendo's brings their edits closer to the OTT cheese I expected from Tenaglia these days. This clears the way for Cox to steal the show with two tighter, harder-hitting techy interpretations. He applies much-needed effects to dub out the vocal sample and a few more tonal components that bring color to the tracks, like acid lines and stormy dub synths, which sit well with his thicker basslines. Big rooms often sound a lot worse.
TracklistA1 Don’t Turn Your Back (Danny Tenaglia's Paradise Mix)
A2 Don’t Turn Your Back (Harry Romero Remix)
B1 Don’t Turn Your Back (Carl Cox Remix)
B2 Don’t Turn Your Back (Carl Cox ‘Asw' Remix)