- 'Walk Music' marks Henrik Schwarz's return to releasing his own material after a seemingly endless string of prime cut remixes. His dusky remix of Mari Boine's 'Vuoi Vuoi Mu', his dark and dubby remix of Booka Shade's 'Vertigo' and his crackling revision of Kraak & Smaak's 'No Sun In the Sky' are all recent evidence that Schwarz is a master of getting unexpected and inspiring results from other people's material. His latest twelve, however, finds him remixing himself, offering a final draft of one of his own tunes from 2003 (included here in its original form).
The soul of 'Walk Music' is an aural apparition: a backwards tape edit which will raise the hairs on the back of your neck. This ghostly refrain is punctuated by a fiercely plucked bassline, delicate pads and mourning string swells which pass by like a car on a highway. It all adds up to a haunting and elegant deep house experience. As with many Schwarz productions, 'Walk Music' is meticulously constructed from choice timbres, but in its more muscular 2007 form, it's solid enough to move more deeply-inclined dancefloors. I could even imagine Carl Craig capping off one of his sets with the tune if he was feeling particularly intrepid (or had run out of his own productions).
The blueprint for the track appears on the B-side in a skeletal form. Aside from the relative sparseness, a pleasant yet ill-fitting chime intro is the most noticeable difference between the versions. But when compared with the A-side, '2003's wispy execution seems somehow lacking: you can hear why Schwarz returned for another crack at it. Unlike his reinterpretations of 'Jimis' and 'Leave My Head Alone, Brain' from last year, this is less a variation in the jazz sense than a rough draft needing to be fleshed out. Still, I'm glad it was included: Schwarz's tendency towards releasing versions is a great opportunity for new fans to look back at his earlier work .
'Walk Music' may have flown under the radar after its March release, perhaps because relatively few DJs were able to integrate such a complicated and musical track into their sets, but that doesn't diminish its standing as one of 2007's best tracks and a high point for Henrik Schwarz himself.
TracklistA Walk Music
B Walk Music 2003