Hernan Cattaneo’s Sudbeat label is back, and this time they’ve lined up rising Greek star Kassey Voorn with a melodic monster, ‘Chords from the Heart’. (Some of the earlier artwork said ‘Hearth’, which is why you may have seen that on some tracklistings.) Remixes come from Traum’s Microtrauma and from Israeli producer Muzarco, who appeared on the Sudbeats compilation earlier this year.
Kassey Voorn’s original version of ‘Chords…’ builds with gentle stabs and a groovy electo bassline, while the main theme comes in the form of memorable, warm interlocking organ themes. The highlight is definitely the huge build-up; the track absolutely thunders back in, the melodies delivering a thoroughly uplifting experience.
It’s no secret that I’m a huge Microtrauma fan, with their ‘Interaural’ coming as close to my idea of sonic perfection as anything else I’ve heard this year. They really deliver on their remix of ‘Chords…’, offering up a textbook example of hazy, trippy melodic techno goodness. Kassey Voorn’s main theme is really well utilized, floating throughout the track and really coming into focus at the peak of the mamoth build-up towards the end. Otherwise, it’s all skipping kickdrums, sparkling synths, and rich organ tones, wrapped in delicate layers of electronic noise.
I found Muzarco’s remix much more of a game of two halves. His version gallops along nicely enough, underpinned by a wobbly, murky bass part and mechanical percussion, but there’s a somewhat discordant sequence halfway through that I’m not keen on (it falls around 1.30 in the clip below, if you’re not sure what I’m talking about). Once we get clear of that, though, I found the second half much more compelling, with a gentle, spacey descending synth line working its way in, and providing a great backdrop for Muzarco’s own twisted and distorted take on Kassey Voorn’s melody.
Despite a strong original from Kassey Voorn, I definitely have to go with Microtrauma’s version here. Whichever of the three mixes you pick, it’s clear that Sudbeat are set to do some damage with this one. 8/10
