It was one of those moments that exposed the current zeitgeist in dance music when so many reviewers expressed surprise that KiNK’s full length album for Running Back, Playground, was exuberant, lighthearted – in a word: fun. They weren’t wrong about it, but the fact that a techno & modern house album could also be a house party record hit some people like a thunderbolt.
By now we’re used to extremely unserious people making frowningly serious music and taking incredibly stark photographs of themselves in which they look appropriately preoccupied by carrying the weight of the world. The Playground was the antithesis of this mopey, pretentious and navel-gazing trend, and if enough people listen it might be the antidote too.
Comes now a fabulous pair of remix records that hammer home the note that you don’t have to be bore or a drag to be taken seriously. UK duo Dusky deliver a rather extensive rework of KiNK’s “Perth,” with euphoric chords building into a peak hour crush. Radio Slave’s remix of “Teo Techno” dubs itself a “disco dub” and perversely slams heavy metal hypnotic techno.
The second volume features two absolute legends in Wink and Herbert. The latter’s “Funnel dub” of KiNK’s “Yom Thorke” is suitably eclectic, as one might expect: electrified and synthetic drums snap in the style of Nigerian polyrhythmic Afrobeat. Josh Wink pins down “Five” beneath a rapid fire cascade of acid and tweaked-out effects and tribal drums that sound akin to what Matthew Herbert brought to “Yom Thorke.”
KiNK: The Playground (Remixes Vol 1 & 2) / Running Back
A1. KiNK: “Perth” (Dusky remix) (6:15)
B1. KiNK: “Teo Techno” (Radio Slave disco dub) (10:16)
A1. KiNK: “Yom Thorke” (Matthew Herbert Funnel dub) (8:13)
B1. KiNK: “Five” (Josh Wink 2 = 23 interpretation) (8:04)
Originally published inside 5 Magazine #164 featuring Cassy, DC LaRue, Sean Haley, Titonton & more. Become a member of 5 Magazine for First & Full Access to Real House Music for only $1 per issue!
