Afterglow Deep return with a fine release from Chicago’s rising star of all things techy, Nick Stoynoff, featuring two brand new tracks and excellent remixes from Andre Sobota and Marc Poppcke.
First up we have ‘Leif Blojer’, which kicks off with a simple and chunky bassline, before building with little disco licks and airy washes of melody. A teasing breakdown leads nicely into a dreamy second half, before the track winds down. It’s not high-impact stuff, but it just sits beautifully in the space it creates. This is really great work.
http://youtu.be/wdu1l1FwnOQ
Title track ‘Tresor Blackout’ is darker and heavier than its counterpart. Those sweet sweeps are still in effect, but they’re set against a more mechanical, industrial groove, and the melodies are unnerving, spacey and lost, rather than warm and uplifting. I didn’t like this as much as ‘Leif Blojer’, but it’s still really strong, distinctive work from Stoynoff.
Man of the moment Andre Sobota takes on ‘Leif Blojer’, toughening the track up with a funkier, nastier bass part and sharper percussion. Despite this, Sobota manages not to lose too much of what makes the original such a trip, borrowing lots of those lovely atmospheric synths to really good effect. These lead in to a huge melodic break, before things get a bit crazy, the bassline getting twisted into all kinds of trouble. This is another towering remix from Andre Sobota, though I do think it’ll be a shame if it ends up eclipsing the subtler original.
Marc Poppcke turns in his best remix of the year so far, for my money, with his interpretation of ‘Tresor Blackout’. A great rolling bassline, rich percussion, and a fantastic use of the musical ideas from the original yield a perfect mood-setter, right on the boundary between deep and progressive house.
This is a great EP, with the original of ‘Leif Blojer’ providing my personal highlight, ‘Tresor Blackout’ perhaps being my least favourite, and the two outstanding remixes falling comfortably in between. Nick Stoynoff has already been tagged as one to watch, and it’s great to see him justifying that in such style. 8/10
