Ben Long’s The Other Side Remixes

We’re about six years beyond Peak Digital now, and with it Peak Remix. The six to ten pack of remixes offering little value, by people more distinguished by their relationship to the “label boss” versus their creativity has become a sad but true cliche and one probably common enough to support a fake twitter account dedicated to lampooning the collection of stoner ex-roommates and disaffected lenders who pump out copious but undistinguished 6 minute passes to little acclaim.

And with that wind up: this is an exception, notable because it stands out against that dark backdrop of good intentions and poor judgment. This is the remix EP of Ben Long’s 2015 release The Other Side, and it’s just so damn solid that I want to make it the photographic negative of one of the industry’s more pathetic trends.

Hyperactive leads off with his remix of “The Solver,” with the Chicago acid lord giving a timely reminder that he could remix a kid strumming a rubberband strung across a cigar box and make you dance to it. Charlotte de Witte’s remix is no slouch either – another dark take that’s eager to get going, starting straight away with that wobbly pulse and building into a 9 minute stomp.

There are four remixes of Long’s “Law of Sine,” including one by Bulletdodge’s Gareth Whitehead and a mix by Ben himself. Steve Mulder’s remix is huge in sound and epic in scope – what a modern StormRave set might sound like if you compressed it down to 7 minutes. Dany Rodriguez strips it down with a fierce assault of drums, evocative of the militaristic waves of percussion from Green Velvet’s “Flash.”