a.s.o. remixed EP

Following from a.s.o. ‘s self-titled LP, we have a set of remixes taking their trip-hop torch songs in new and different directions.

Under his Lew E moniker, Lewie Day takes ‘Go On’ for a trip to trance-town. Brooding minor key menace as Alia Seror-O’Neil’s melancholic vocal gets twisted into strange shapes, eventually becoming an instrument of its own. Mutating from the organic to the synthetic during an adrenaline-racing breakdown. Day sounds like he’s having a great deal of fun playing with and defying the conventions of the genre.

Maara explores a similar space on her re-rub of ‘My Baby’s Got It Out For Me’. Once again, Seror-O’Neil’s voice is flexed and warped, spinning around the stereo field, as emotive as she ever sounds but more abstracted. Gossamer light with a heavyweight trance chassis – an iron fist in a lace glove.

Rising star Cousin moves in an earthier and more dubwise fashion on his remix of ‘Falling Under.’ His trademark shuffling, layered percussion comes with gnarly electronics and blissed-out synths. All the while, that vocal refrain leads us through the bong smoke toward the light. A work of restraint and release, the perfect fit for a.s.o.

Purelink’s redo of ‘Rain Down’ is closer stylistically to the original. Bubbling synth-bass grooves atop a breakbeat, the vocal chopped and diced tastefully. Balearic street soul vibes, a hypnotic and heady five minutes. Beautiful business.