With 3 years and 50 releases under its belt, Steve Parry and Dave Seaman’s Selador label swaggers past GO demanding £200, with the 50th release coming from Dave Seaman himself backed by remixes from Lee Van Dowski, Chymera, and OC & Verde.
‘Nightfalls’ sees Dave Seaman once again revisting the vocals from the Ananda Project’s classic ‘Cascades of Colour’, which will be familiar from his mash-up with Charlie May’s glorious, trancey remix of Mandalay’s ‘Deep Love’ on GU16. In line with the shift of focus suggested by the change of title, Dave Seaman sets out here to build the vocal into a serious bit of after-dark gear, with brooding pianos, growling bass parts, and the kind of hypnotic, slow and percussive build we’ve been hearing from Selador artists like Show-B and D-Nox & Beckers recently. It’s the bass that gives the track most of its sheer presence, though it’s nicely offset by lighter chiming pianos, while the second half hits even harder with metallic percussive loops.
Geneva’s Lee Van Dowski steps up next, his remix kicking off with a strong, propulsive bassline backed by solid kicks, before he teases in the vocal and piano to great effect. There’s an even slower build to the breakdown here than on Dave Seaman’s original, but the driving, biting sounds intensifying under the vocal are more than reward enough, and they set up a killer drop.
My pick of the four versions comes from a master of melodic deep techno and house, Chymera. He spins mesmerising sounds over crisp percussion, before hooking the listener with Dave Seaman’s delicate pianos, a pulsating bassline, and weaving organ-like melodies. The remix takes on a dreamy quality to the remix as lazy, hazy pads engulf the vocals, while the second half plays up the metallic sounds from Dave Seaman’s original to lend a bit more urgency – though it does so without compromising the vibe that’s been built up to that point. What a master-class in remixing this is.
Manchester-based duo OC & Verde ramp the energy levels right back up, with a pacey, high-octane tech-house interpretation of Dave Seaman’s track, weaponizing his bassline over a busy percussive groove. What really makes the remix work, though, is the surprise acid melodies that emerge out of the breakdown, giving a nice balance of sweetness and tension.
Congratulations to Steve Parry and Dave Seaman, who have taken Selador from a standing-start to one of the most essential and distinctive labels around in a remarkably short space of time. Package 50 nicely demonstrates why they’ve been so successful, with a range of quality interpretations of Dave Seaman’s track that will appeal to DJs of all kinds of different musical persuasions. It’s Chymera all the way for me personally, though – it’s a gem.
