The triumph of Bastien Keb‘s debut album last year on One-Handed Music, was that it was like nothing else we’d heard in quite some time. The Leamington Spa multi-instrumentalist delivered 11 tracks of lo-fi, soul-infused beats, with a similar dusty aesthetic to label mates Mo Kolours and Paul White, but interwoven by his own husky vocals, muted trumpet and guitar licks.
While such a distinctive style plays into your hands with solo work, it makes the stakes that much higher when tackling remix projects. It’s a fine balance to project your own style onto an original, without making it a vanity project that consumes what came before. Enter this rework of Submotion Orchestra, taken from the band’s fourth album Colour Theory, which balances the two perfectly. BK flips the track’s cinematic foundations and performs the sonic equivalent of shutting the door to a cold living room, pulling the curtains and lighting a cozy fire. Ruby Wood’s soaring vocals are given a new appearance as they harmonise with BK’s, while the crunchy beat and charming trumpet notes, create a remix that’s intimate and restrained, but bursting with as much character as BK’s inspired album.
In Gold is released 25th March on Counter Records, with additinoal remixes from xxxy and Nikitch. Buy from the Ninja Tune website or Bandcamp.
