First up is a remix of Hard Patience from Humanoid Gods, an artist who heralds from Turin, Italy. Himself a man who carries a dark and mystical energy from a city famed for it’s dark and mystical energy, all this intensity pervades through his music. Even his artist name seems to hold more questions than answers. Meanwhile, fellow Turin residents Boston 168 recently offered up a remix themselves for Humanoid Gods, a sure stamp of fellow artistic approval. There is no messing around here with the powerful signatures from Hard Patience ramped to 11 and laced with strong, gritty hard techno beats. A fantastic set opener.
Next up is The GOAT, aka Chris Marcinkiewicz, born in a remote Canadian town called Prince Rupert, which was named in a creative meditation by Sarah de Leeuw as a “Highway of Monsters”, The GOAT is now based in Vancouver, but it appears the monsters came with him. Another artist drawn by the leftfield who naturally explores the boundaries of the unsafe often with a blistering hard techno edge. Probably by no coincidence, a common thread in the artists Harper has curated for volume 6 is an early interest in alternative heavy metal. These influences, can certainly be felt in The GOAT’s signature sound and it was these brutal, hard, distorted beats that really drew Harper to invite The GOAT to remix New Super. Powerful from the off, this is an absolute belter of a remix, it feels incredible from start to finish, but there is a very subtle energy at work that climaxes at the drop around 3mins 32secs. Check it.
But wait! It. Does. Not. Stop. Ha ha! The master that is Raul Alvarez remixes Humanistic Correction. The Madrid based maestro is possibly one of electronic music’s most prolific producers. Working as an audio and mastering engineer by day, Raul Alvarez finds himself very close to the music he loves. A true artist, familiar with the suffering that life can bring, after spending time in a mental hospital in Berlin and breaking both his legs while trying to escape. But even before this traumatic incident, his music spoke of some incredible divine energy that as he himself would say, cannot easily be put into words. The Raul Alvarez remix of Humanistic Correction does not disappoint, this is straight to the point, hypnotic dancefloor techno, deep, rich, powerful and masterfully respectful of the original.
There is a lot that could be said about the producer behind the final remix on volume 6, Greencross. One could mention his prolific time as label founder of Different is Different, or some of the other incredible remixes he has accomplished, or his move into the magnetic world of NFTs. But the reality is, Greencross is simply a dude who really understands techno music and who cites his main inspiration as “his many failed attempts to fit in”. His fine tuned ear was quickly drawn to the possibilities in Zeitgeber and he has reconstructed the original’s 1920s swing vibe into a classic 2020s snappy techno forerunner.
“For volume 6 I set the intention of reaching out to artists whom I knew were expressing the most extreme depths of deeply held emotion in their sound. I’ve become familiar with all the artists on volume 6 from playing their tracks on my monthly radio show so I knew exactly what energy I was calling upon here. I trust you’ll agree that this is raw, dark, hard techno at it’s most artistic and expressive that is simply incredible on every level. I have had the joy of playing these tracks out a few times now and the crowd reaction is consistently explosive”.