dakota suite / peter broderick / deaf center / various

The Night Just Keeps Coming In

Not so much a remix album as a remake of Dakota Suite's The End Of Trying long-player, reconstructed according to the original record's tracklisting with the help of a list of artists who might be said to represent a kind of Boomkat in-house favourites list: Peter Broderick, Machinefabriek, Arve Henriksen, Deaf Center, The Boats - not to mention just about everyone on the Miasmah label's roster. The assembled contributors make up a truly starry line-up. Significantly, there's a very natural sense of harmoniousness and correlation between Dakota Suite's gloomy neo-classical originals and the remixed end products on offer here, and while Machinefabriek's keen to make a careful digital dissection of 'One Day Without Harming You', the spirit of the source material is very much preserved. Peter Broderick's overhaul of 'This Failing Sea' barely grazes the Satie-esque piano phrasings, instead opting for a lightness of touch with field recordings scattered in the background. Hauschka brings some sparkle to 'A Quietly Gathering Tragedy', tinkering away with electronics and music box mechanics, the result of which is an album standout. It's a relatively rare moment of implicitly upbeat dynamics, something shattered by Elegi's comprehensively and brilliantly dour contribution. Following on in a not dissimilar fashion is a Deaf Center remix that clashes string harmonies together with a discordant violence, revisiting the kind of subtle cinematic constructions heard on their Pale Ravine album. Hannu lightens the tone momentarily, managing to make 'The End Of Trying Part III' sound firmly like one of his own tracks, full of wintry xylophone and warm filtrations before Tape bring a krautrock-influenced organ drone into play and Swod (with another album highlight) add rich vinyl crackle and field recorded textures to the melancholy string swirls of 'Een Langzaam Lekkende Wond'. As remix collections go, The Night Just Keeps Coming In is an outstanding album, sure to please fans of the original material as well as followers of the various esteemed artist's who've taken part in the project. Hugely recommended.