Nic Brown
It's very seldom that remixes manage to outdo their source material but Jesus, the insanely talented Lena Willikens has kicked the arse of two already excellent originals from the first two Huntley + Palmers compilation EP series out of the park and into the back garden of some unsuspecting soul three cities away. Okla Gabon's "City Gym" is stripped of all extraneous clutter, given a gleaming silver paint job, fitted with a supercharger and sent for a spin on a deserted autobahn. It wastes no time in ramping up the revs until it's the electro equivalent of Popeye Doyle's Pontiac LeMans from The French Connection in hot pursuit of the bad guy on the elevated train above him. But twice as fast. The brilliant rRoxymore's splendidly titled "Ministry of Silly Talks" was already a Krug champagne of a wonky house tune and Willikens has recorked rather than rebottled it, so the original's oddly angled, skewed character is still intact but polished with the deliberately deployed imperfections left pretty much as they were. Lena, you can create a masterful EP and remix with the best of them: any chance of an album,?
Favorite track: Oklo Gabon - City Gym (Lena Willikens Remix).