Psycatron / ‘People In Glass Houses’
Vinyl / Digital
Tresor / Released March 28th 2011
“We wanted to try something on a slightly dubbier tip than our usual fare and had been listening to lots of old European techno from the early 90’s at the time.” From the word go, this is clearly nothing but the truth.
Psycatron’s brief explanation of the thought process behind this release is pretty apt. For one thing, it’s bass heavy. And then on another tip it’s rolling as you like, even in the Channel Basic Tool, a beatless mix utility featuring the spiralling, filtered melodies of the first two versions that will no doubt provide many a DJ with hours of useful fun. But let’s start at the beginning.
Kicking off with the Lateral Thinking remix, Paul Hamill and Dave Lievense, the duo behind this release, take little time to set the pace. A couple of minutes in and there’s acidity everywhere as synths tweak and snares roll to dramatic, and relatively old school effect. All the while keys shimmer above the throbbing (and wholly Tresor) bassline, spelling out mainroom in rather large letters.
In contrast the Original mix takes things into deeper waters. This time we’re talking more progressive moods than techno drive, as a monotonous horn gives the arrangement an added air of build. Again our ears are led by the sprawling refrain, this time made ten times as big thanks to increased distortion. Despite the white noise drops that welcome the more than adequate kicks back from the brink of each breakdown this may not satisfy those looking for truly tough beats, though when combined with the other two tracks, or rather remixes on offer here, this actually works in the release’s favour, turning more than a few taste buds onto these sounds.
