Albion Records present, ‘The Lost Tapes’, a real treat for the lovers of true house music lacking the digital tools in the age of analogue expressionism. Albion 004 brings forth one of the true pioneers of the French house scene with a three track EP from the infamous, Ark.
It additionally features three original tracks which have been dug out from the vaults of his studio deep in Lyon, covered in cobwebs but still manage to sound as fresh and as fuck you as any contemporary tunes that grace the house airwaves. The before now unheard tracks consist of three peak time slammers: Funk Da Police (2013) Dunktrain (1994) and Liposuccion (1996) all tracks emanate a certain raw, heavy hitting sound in conjunction with ambient ambivalence which Albion is renowned for and should be remembered for when the touch is this tasty. Handling the remix duties it's the industrious Arttu who delivers a serious remix injection into the original tunes, which is a real dance-floor weapon unafraid to mutate the songs into stronger compounds then they were initially understood for.
Opening tune, ‘Funk Da Police’, is a verbal assault on the senses that prowls before the pounce on a pogo-stick’s levitating forces, a bass in the bounce, the ball entirely in their court. It’s sharp, suited, suave and dangerous; a real menace like an intruder in some abandoned suburban warehouse, the night open to anyone, until ridiculous o’clock strikes and the moves jerk into the craziest of directions that defy physical motion. Lyrical knives stab themselves into the tongue that spits them; riddles upon reasons lost in a network of intricate and abrasive industrial size blocks of metallic force forever shifting in dynamic.
The remix, offers a more special and spectral approach to the song; ghostly and primitive, godlike and spared the pharaoh’s introduction for it might damage the reputation that proceeds him. The fizzing glimmers of bass provide some solid structure, whereas the verbal scissors snip forward occasionally kissing the pounding drums with a deathly blow and robotic aftertaste, fucking with mind, fucking with everything we know as real. It escalates, elevates and eventually flies through the sky as something utterly devilish enters the bloodstream assuring us the night is long from over with a groove this loose but a track so tight at the seams that have yet to split.
Song proper aside, and its rightful remix heir aside, next new tune, ‘Dunktrain’, comes across forceful as the legs stride across a tightrope at great heights with confidence, despite the wobble from the speaker-systems that surround. Slick, sexy and stuttering it channels the electrified charms into the centrefold of all emotive passions; driven crazy at the hand of an unnerving atmosphere that comes in the form of smoke we cannot help but get lost in.
‘Liposuccion’, concludes the EP in the way all things should be concluded. That demonic bass punch climbing platforms getting heavier with each bar built and brain-cell broken, rhythms that workout the entire track like a military sergeant gone slightly mad with power, or the itching whispers of section that enchant as much as they entrap all rational equations of where to turn and who with. Oh the look on their faces when they stumbled across these hidden fuckers. Great EP because of how modern it sounds, despite being recorded, produced, and so on when music…was music.
Ryan Walker
Follow Ryan on Twitter: @RyanLewsWalker
