- As long as club types keep reviving the mid-'80s, they ought to remember to keep it memorable, or at least purposeful. "Night Impact" is the kind of track that shows someone—in this case, Portuguese producer Rui Maia, doing synth-pop business as Mirror People—has paid close enough attention to that era to make his rendition of it stick. To that end, "Night Impact" relies on a wheedling organ hook that the era's college radio would have jumped at, moony and winning; rubber-bandy bass-snap, primitive drum machine and fizzy synths galore complete the picture. There aren't many words, and those don't matter (though the soft "relax, relax" is kind of nice); track two, "Diamonds," has none. And like the title track, "Diamonds" is bouncy and fizzy but not in any way forced. Anyone with a yen for Italians Do It Better will cock an eyebrow.
Even better, all four "Night Impact" remixes are terrific. Pelifics refashion it as straighter synth-disco, giving a kind of soft-focus treatment to R&B as it sounded just before Jam & Lewis ascended. CRYSTAL give it a fast, caught-at-the-video-arcade treatment that hooks in a quick, sour piano line and the word "relax" repeated like a comedy mantra while the track keeps building, climaxing with a piping organ solo. Cosmonaut Grechko comes on like a cross between Fred Falke (those Miami Vice synth lines and beautifully rounded low end) and Lone (going crazy with the filter) to bewitching effect. And Sweet Track's "Space Dub Mix" spotlights those creamy synthesizers over a handclap-laden shuffle that's Ibizan without self-conscious irony.
Tracklist 01. Night Impact
02. Diamonds
03. Night Impact (Pelifics Remix)
04. Night Impact (Crystal Remix)
05. Night Impact (Cosmonaut Grechko Re-Interpretation)
06. Night Impact (Sweet Track Space Dub)