Lowbit revisit last yearโs beautiful โLife & Deathโ EP from Miraculum, offering up two remixes by David Granha of โRequiem for Two Fading Flowersโ and two of โAs a Heart Started to Beatโ by Ewan Rill.
David Granha makes his fifth appearance remixing for the label here. Both his remixes of โRequiemโ seriously beef the track up, taking it squarely into peak-time progressive techno territory. The centrepiece of his โBig Crunchโ remix is a wall of bass that powers-up two minutes in and keeps the listener on the ropes for the remainder of the track, while huge snare rolls and snatches of melody from the original track ensure that the tension levels stay high.
Granhaโs โQuasarโ remix lacks the raw energy of his โBig Crunchโ, but for my money itโs the more distinctive and interesting of the two. Itโs fairly similar in structure and mood, but interstellar sound effects, a properly wobbly bassline, and a slightly stronger nod to Miraculumโs original combine to lend it a bit more atmosphere. Even without the crunch, thisโll do serious damage.
Ewan Rill may be a newcomer to Lowbit, but his smooth progressive sound will be familiar to fans of labels like Stripped Digital, Vurtical and Balkan Connection. He keeps his remix of โAs a Heartโฆโ light and melodic, a chugging bassline providing the backbone and layered synth lines adding the flesh. Itโs very pretty, though I did find myself wishing it was a bit less gentle and a bit more exciting.
Rillโs additional โlightโ remix is virtually identical, as far as I can tell, except that it features a groovier bassline. I slightly prefer the light version, but it definitely felt a bit redundant to include both, given how similar they are to each other.
Sometimes allowing an artist to turn in more than one remix of the same track can result in something a bit special, something that they wouldnโt have dared to do if they were limited to just one version. Unfortunately, that hasnโt really happened here, and given the strength of the source material from Miraculum, Iโd have much preferred to see a more diverse package from Lowbit. That said, the Granha remixes pack a lot of punch โ youโll definitely want to have them in your arsenal. ย 7/10
