Playground magazine

HIVERN (HVN010, 12”)

Teengirl Fantasy’s album, “7AM” (Merok, 2010), was never released on vinyl, which is why the most club-friendly tune on it, the closing track, couldn’t be played by the old school DJs when they should have: at the end of the sets, when the sun comes up or as a transition to a climax. “Cheaters” can make you enter a state of trance –neon synths, gliding sounds, a phrase that sounds like an invitation to riot – and was one of the best pieces of epic music released last year, maybe with less distribution than it actually deserved. The Barcelona label, which seems to make a habit of giving tracks that deserve it a second life –they already did a reissue of John Talabot’s “Sunshine”–, has reserved one whole side for “Cheaters”, so that the track can sound in all of its beauty in the broad grooves, and the remixes are on side B.

John Talabot chose right not to interfere with the psychedelic ecstasy of the original mix, knowing that you can’t improve the unbeatable, and turns the track around like a sock, squeezing the vocal sample as if it were a Joe Smooth tune and constructing a classic house beat, an anthem between summery and garage that has the same intensity as Teengirl Fantasy’s version, without it sounding too much alike. The second remix is by Beautiful Swimmers and, as was to be expected, they keep the beat under control, like someone pulling the leash of a furious dog: you expect an explosion of rhythm and euphoria, but the Baltimore boys bury it under layers and layers of slow rhythms in true Balearic style. Either way, all three tracks provoke goosebumps.

Javier Blánquez