Oliver Schories and Joris Delacroiz team up for two fantastic tracks on Schories’s flagship label der Turnbeutel, following the success of Delacroiz’s remix of ‘Sunset’ last year, while Zusammenklang, N’to and Dan Caster supply the remixes.
‘Palm Tree Memories’ is an utterly exquisite slice of deepness. Build around a melancholic chord sequence, the track boasts indistinct but evocative vocals, two interlocking bass parts, and a mesmerizing and moving breakdown that offsets the vocals against beautiful chimes, which recur for the track’s epic finale. This is gorgeous, funky, and touching – in short, all that house can be, at its best.
In contrast, ‘Don’t Move’ is a stomp, initially organized around an intricately arranged vocoder and a catchy guitar hook, which is echoed by the bassline, building up to a euphoric break where the track is suddenly swept along by shimmering arpeggios. The breakdown winds things back a bit, before the bass- and piano-led finale hits. It’s not a record I’d be likely to play myself, but as mood-lifter it could hardly be improved upon, showcasing both Oliver Schories and Joris Delacroiz’s superb production values and a great sense of fun.
Zusammenklang is responsible for easily one of the finest house records of 2014 so far, also called ‘Don’t Move’. A slinky bassline and a looped chiming hook are the order of the day on his version of ‘Palm Tree Memories’, and the remix builds nicely, though the chopped vocal part from the original started to grate on me after a while. The remix soon let’s the vocals flourish a little more, set against pianos and big chord changes, and the result is tasteful and pleasant, though it didn’t suck me in the way that the original did.
Next up Parquet regular N’to makes his debut on the label, providing the second remix of ‘Palm Tree Memories’, which drifts the main theme over a slightly warped take on the original’s bassline. However, the remix really distinguishes itself from the original after an early breakdown, drifting abstract melodies and the original’s theme over a pulsing bassline, giving the track a more propulsive, melodic techno sound in the process.
Finally, der Turnbeutel institution Dan Caster offers up his interpretation of ‘Don’t Move’, which works the original’s guitar and vocal parts into a more restrained but chunkier twist. Something of the gleeful abandon of the original is lost in the process, but as a result this version should appeal more to cooler, techier dancefloor.
It’s Oliver Schories and Joris Delacroiz’s two originals that really make this fantastic release from der Turnbeutel, but while none of the remixes successes in improving on those, they round the package out in a way that is sure to make it appeal to a wider range of DJs and dancefloors. 8.5/10
