minimal techno hero joakim recently released an album called, monsters and silly songs.
the cover artwork for which was mad and scary and very eye catching.
i have yet to hear the album, but having heard this rather wonderful simple synth pop song, i have to say i am rather keen to do so now. the 3 minute radio edit is very easily the one meant to pull in the punters as the chorus and hooks are sharply focussed. with a sad melancholic atmosphere, and the use of the word lonely throughout, then the listener cannot help but sucked into the moody grey 80s pop ambience.
alongside the radio edit, is an old school dub version, which for once, is exactly that, not a purely instrumental take, but one that strips off the vocals (other than a few cut up snippets here and there giving the song an almost sputnik-esque feel), and adds plenty of reverb and echo. making the results a fantastic 4 minutes of dubbed up madness that would make fans of on-u sound records happy.
then to round off the ep, there is the loving hand remix by dfa associate tim goldsworthy – all 9 minutes of it.
as is often the dfa way, things start off with a lovely slice of acid house sqiggles that bear little relation to the source track, these acid noises are then slowly supplemented by the addition of a solid-as-a-rock drum and bass foundation, things are then built up and up into an almighty funked up monster, after which at about 3 minutes, the track is once again stripped right back to just the beat, undercurrent pulsations of machines, and down tuned dismembered vocal parts adding an element of creepiness to the proceedings.
the results are truly glorious.
more detail : here
video : here