Inner City: Rise (2011 Dub Remix)

Goddamnit, Kevin Saunderson.

That's all this review was going to be, because Kevin and Kweku Saunderson's remix of the Inner City classic "Rise" ripped the top of my head off. This is a dub that I can get down with: a looping vocal eruption, pounding percussion and then everything else reverbed to hell like a hurricane ripping through a chrome machine shop. After the sudden intro, this is pure build: it just churns like a machine over and over into an early break at 2:00 in after which those dubbed voices take over. Whenever I hear something like this, I can't help but to think of cramped lofts with walls that seem to sweat, drinks in dixie cups, a single light and a smokey haze.

The trend by every label with a catalog worth remembering shoving "2011 remixes" out the door is pretty bleak, with a few notable exceptions. I think Cajmere does a good job - in his case, most of the classic Relief and Cajual recordings have been out of print for years, and in making them available digitally once again, he's exposing a new generation to some of the best House Music ever made by handing them off to new remixers. Some of 'em ain't my style, but some of the original remixes weren't my sorta girl, either. Same with Octave One's Revisited Series: I don't know if Alexander Kowalski's remix of "I Need Release" has set the world on fire, but it certainly made my corner of it a little better.

Kevin Saunderson is doing something a little different with the weighty KMS Records catalog. There's not much hype behind it - after the Elevate project, it's just single releases with one, perhaps two remixes total, and that's it. At least in this case, one mix was all I needed.

Kevin mentioned in our interview back in January that he was helping his nephew Kweku break into the industry. I have no idea who is responsible for what here but I'm definitely impressed.

[ - Review by Terry Matthew / July 2011 - ]

Available: Apparently available only from Beatport.