My Desire (Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve Remix) – Interpol

So today I have something really special for you. Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve (Erol Alkan and Richard Norris) give US rock band Interpol the remix treatment. And boy they flip it into something fucking tasty.

The angst of the original vocals remains. But where there were minor sliding guitars, they overlay the most brutal of synths. One of my favourite synth loops of all time. Hit it.

Bonus track: hey, in case you are interested. Interpol aren’t even very good. And Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve are pretty hit-and-miss, so don’t bother looking around too much. Apart from this one. Cool and spooky in equal measure.

Strange Roads at Night – Ben Sun

I have to admit I’m a little late to the party on Ben Sun. The UK producer (not to be confused with England prop Ben Moon) has been around for about 10 years, but just popped onto my radar with this beaut of an album.

The highlights are the Salty Tears (sultry piano chords and a floor-filling bassline) and the closing acid-meet-jazz track, Maman’s Lover. Elsewhere, it’s originally sampled and occasionally verging on the Balearic. Very good. Very good indeed.

No Valentine’s Day special here.

Edmondson

You know who makes nice music? Edmondson. Late last year he released a new EP on his own label Lissoms. Adapt2 is the highlight: its characteristically crisp, and has an undeniably deep flow to it.

Maybe even better is the We Have Love EP. Both tracks are just dripping in cool – so on point – and there’s even a cheeky Dauwd remix added in there for the bargain.

And doing a bit of back-catalogue digging, I came across one my favourite releases of a few years ago and it still sounds fresh. Props.

Anjou – Youandewan

Youandewan (Ewan Smith to his mum & dad) creates beautiful, intimate, introspective, wandering gems of tracks. They make me think of watching the world and its lights go by through a rain-soaked window on the top deck of a bus. Anjou was his first hit, and even though it was released almost a decade ago, it sounds as fresh as if it was yesterday. And if anything 1988 is an even purer treasure of a track.

If you are liking what you hear then check out his debut full-length album from 2016. You can hear how his style has changed over the 8 year gap between the records, a time that also coincided with a move to Berlin. Two stand-out tracks here: 10405 (Alice) and the closing track, 4D Anxiety.

Super Bar Konon Mousso (K&F Edit) – Amadou Balaké

If you’ve had the good fortune to see a Krywald & Farrer set you’ll know what they are all about. As Percolate front-men Jack Farrer and Edward Krywald-Sanders have had it pretty good over the last few years, and it’s not hard to see why when they release re-rubs of this quality. Souped up afro-goodness. Upbeat, funky, disco-laced good times.

And here is the original by Burkina Faso’s own Amadou Balaké.