Description
Berceuse Heroique is the affiliate black label from the minds behind KEMA?. The project’s logic is simple but effective – 180g vinyl black wax, black bag, sheet-insert art only, 2 sides, 2 dance floor-minded electronic transmissions from a carefully selected pool of artists. There are no musical limitations, the series will feature a wide range of sounds across the electronic spectrum.
A. Bunker/Panzerkreuz associate, Ekman, comes through with a rough electro hybrid for the first Berceuse Heroique broadcast. “Reform” is certainly not one for the faint-hearted and it pushes the limits of the Detroit/Hague connection to the limit. The track has mounds of energy right from the start, where that menacing, distorted bass line tears through the track with almighty fury. But to me, the best thing about it is that Ekman manages to retain some mystique to the whole affair, thanks to the more dreary-eyed pad which crawls its way up from the depths of the beat. Another thing is that the track sounds pretty modern to me and instead simply imitating the whole Bunker sound, it manages to say something fresh by blending subtle, percolated swarms of percussion with a noisy, grey-scaled edge to the harmonics. Serious warehouse, dark room, lights out stuff from Ekman – floor power! This one will definitely cause stirs of commotion in the early hours..
B. What can I say, Sotofett always has some sort of trick up his sleeve and he really comes through strong with each single. The best things about him are his ability to produce just about every type of electronic genre – from balearic to breakbeat techno and percussive, sample-fuelled deep house; but most of all, we can never expect what we’re going to get from him…mystery is definitely his game and he’s done it again this time. He completely shreds Ekman’s original to bits and creates something of a misnomer – what is it? House, hip-hop? I don’t really know… it almost sounds like a 90’s West-Coast head-nodder, pitched up to semi-house levels. This one really shines thanks to the whole 12″ cut. Where the subtly enveloping flutes have space to play within the cavities of the arrangement. The percussion is also another key feature – balmy kick drums and dubby bass lines collide with some seriously crispy slices of snares and hi-hats to produce one hell of a summer/hazy-days vibe. Most importantly, Sotofett has the balls to transform something so agressive as the Ekman tune into something totally juxtaposed and contrary… what’s strange about it is that I can kind of hear strange relics of the original in there…!
