Trail Remix 12”

In early 2017, Public Release dropped a four-tracker by Brooklyn’s Earth Boys, a duo comprisedof Julian Duron and Michael Sherburn, and now it’s being followed by a collection of remixes by some formidable names from around the world.

Where the EP of originals fell squarely in the category of vibey, shuffling, laid-back house grooves, Trail Remix is decidedly made for the after-midnight parts of club sets. The 12-inch begins with a T&P – that’s Beats in Space’s Tim Sweeney and Phillip Lauer’s version of ‘Trail Mix’. Acid-flecked and hard-edged, and tongue-in-cheek at heart yet seriously functional, it’s the original red-lined and shot down the highway at ninety miles an hour. (Worth noting that this is the transatlantic unit’s first remix to be released.) After that is Earth Boys’ own redo of ‘Highway 1’ a juiced-up re-imagining of the first version, filled out with chunkier kicks and fatter synth washes that completely envelope any sense of direction.

The flip leans towards the ethereal, stretchy, abstract, though it, too, is tracky and driven. The B1 slot goes to Canadian wunderkind Khotin, of 1080p and Normals Welcome, who blows some stardust into the tune, enveloping it in a blanket of sharp drums and icy pads. NYC mainstay Mike Simonetti, formerly of Trouble Man and Italians Do It Better, currently of 2MR, caps the record with his beefy overhaul of ‘Trail Mix’ a compression of industrial percussion, tribal rhythms and sub-bass undulations.