For its newest record, Public Release soars over the Atlantic and glides into Greece to convene with two brothers from Thessaloniki, Christos and Fotis Papadakis, for Cosmic Swimmer, a gentle, lilting sunbleached house escapade.
The 12-inch opens with their soft and cushy original mix of “Cosmic Swimmer”, a charmed layer cake of round, full-bodied hand drums, airy pads, and washed-out vocal harmonies. A breezy, wide-open endless groove that ambles along at a not-too- slow, not-too-fast Goldilocks pace that will easily keep you undulating on the floor or in your head. Another pair of brothers, the Soulwax boys, making a very rare, celebrated appearance here, take the reigns and fill out the arrangement by wrapping it all up in some stone-cathedral euphoric resonance and injecting it with their trademark finger-plucked bass struts. One of their top remixes ever? Perhaps.
The hot potato is then passed to New York City’s Kim Ann Foxman for her take, a more urgent and pressed affair that swaps the organic elements for jittery programmed percussion, strobed effects, and brittle synth licks, all the while somehow keeping the dusting of Balearic feel-good presence intact. Finally, Eric “Dr. Dunks” Duncan jumps into the frame with a tough love acid- flecked interpretation that thrusts the record into peak-hour rave territories.
Published: 19