Bristol-based electronic producer Jim Coles only just graced us a couple of months back with his footwork-oriented comeback EP as Philip D Kick, and now this latest 12” EP on his own Cosmic Bridge label offers up a remix companion to the third album under his Om Unit ‘Self’, released late last year. If that aforementioned album contained some of the most adventurous and diverse material that Coles has released to date as Om Unit, the four reworkings on offer here manage to do it justice.
dBridge’s opening remix of ‘What I Can Be’ reveals clear traces of his early drum and bass roots, as jittery broken rhythms ratchet and flutter against icy synth pads and swelling sub-bass drops, the urgent edge to guest vocalist Amos’ pop-soul harmonies adding to the sense of constantly building tension. SKRS (aka Canadian producers Seekers International) meanwhile reshape ‘Passages’ into swaggering digi-dub, sending crunching handclap rhythms rolling against glittery electronic sequences, synthesised flutes and wobbling sub-bass whilst scattering the background ragga MC exhortations into a contorted mass of dub echos and fractured syllables.
Over on the flipside, young Birmingham producer Sorrow unleashes this EP’s most spectacular moment with his remix of ‘Nothing’ as Rider Shafique’s brooding spoken word performance floats atop a lush backdrop of brooding sub-bass swells, minimalist downbeat rhythms and shimmering electronics. While it’s the most melancholic offering here, it’s also the most hard-hitting.
Finally fellow Bristolians O$VMV$M close this EP off with a reworking of ‘Tahatan’ that echoes the hazy minimalism of their recent self-titled mini-album, building a blurred opaque soundworld out of murmuring rhythms and tentative melodic elements while the sound of field recorded police sirens rings in the distance against wordless angelic vocals. An excellent (if all too brief) remix companion to ‘Self’ that leaves the listener hanging for more.
