OAKE – 47029

OAKE, active since 2013 in Berlin, until 2019 has been the duo of Eric Goldstein (music) and of Bathseba Zippora (vocals). Later on, Bathseba Zippora left the project. During the years, OAKE has published music with acclaimed labels such as Downwards of Regis and Female, Noiztank, SNTS and 47 of Tommy Four Seven. With this label, it has recently published an EP, entitled 47029, including four versions of one of its songs made in 2014, Paysage Dépayse which was included in the release Monad XXIV, released by the Berlin-based label Stroboscopic Artefacts.

47029 includes four versions of a very articulated and visionary song, characterized by a very fast, dense and obscure beat, and by a strong melanchonic melodic component emphasized by female vocals, rather different from most of the other slower music released by OAKE. Paysage Dépayse is a song causing a feeling of estrangement, evoking not only a physical but also a mental artificial landscape.

The opener is a rework by OAKE itself, which doesn’t seem to change anything compared to the original version. The subsequent remixes done by Killawatt, Lemna and Quelza offer three interesting interpretations of the original song. Killawatt transforms the 4/4 beat into a more articulated one enriching it with acid-like synths, while Lemna focuses on the female vocals, progressively contaminated by an IDM rhythm put on the background. This remix focuses more on the atmospheric element of the song. Quelza focuses on the balance between atmosphere and IDM syncopated rhythms, freed from the female vocals.

The aim of this kind of releases isn’t only that of enriching the dj repertoire, also because these remixes could hardly be easily used in a dj set, but it’s rather that of giving new life to a song released some years before and which had a certain impact on the musicians of a more recent generation. This homage is paid through the art of remixing. This kind of releases represent techno culture at its best.

Label: 47

Rating: 8