Playground magazine

YOUNG TURKS (YT038TW, 12”)

First warning: be swift. This vinyl, unlike the rest of the remixes The xx has released over the course of this year –with such luminaries as Pariah, Delorean and Nosaj Thing– comes pressed in a very limited edition, and the risk that it will sell out is more certain than climate change. Single-sided, the Four Tet remix is aimed at the DJ market with the intention of disappearing as soon as it arrives (if you blink, you’ll miss it). The reconstruction Four Tet performs of the narcotic “VCR” is possibly one of the best remixes of this year –big words, as Kieran Hebden is having one of his most productive and inspired periods to date–, especially because of the wonderful last part. This rework is not so different from the ones Four Tet made for Jon Hopkins, Rocketnumbernine and Pantha Du Prince: the construction starts with a disco-ish cement, with a set of organic (very German) drums, but the thing grows as the track plays on and echoes, bells and the boy-girl vocal game of The xx kick in, with the phrases cut-up, left to single words or isolated voices. Once it’s all there, the remix turns loose, starts to fly and reaches stratospheric heights of new psychedelic pop while the kraut disco beat turns into liquid techno. It’s not surprising, as Four Tet has spoilt us already with little miracles, but try to listen to it as if you hadn’t heard anything by the man: you will see that what he does is enormous and is far better than average.

Richard Ellmann

The xx - VCR (Four Tet remix) by Four Tet