You would be forgiven if you thought the latest signings to Apollo were a couple of New York or London based hipsters, the music is so fresh.
Shadow Child is already well known for his debut Shadow Child EP (which contained the ubiquitous String Thing) dropping on Dirty Bird at the start of 2012, but under other pseudonyms he's has been a well known face on the dance music scene for a while.
His co-conspirator on Bordertown, Horx, is also no new-comer and has been involved in the scene since its genesis in the early nineties founding XL Recordings and Positiva..
Kicking off with the deadpan, rapped vocals of TK Wonder and a huge electronic gun-shot like clap, Bordertown immediately signals it's sparse intentions. A stretched, warped synth bass joins the ultra minimal arrangement along with the staccato, quick fire vocal delivery, which serve to drive the whole piece along. This is music for dark and small sweaty clubs.
On the first of two remixes, Synkro takes Bordertown into more organic territory, adding deep house pads and replacing the huge synthetic drums hits of the original mix with claps that sit around a slightly swung house rhythm and complemented by a bouncing synth bassline that melds all the syncopation into a coherent floor filler, all the while TK Wonder's vocals riding the rhythm and propelling the track forward.
Next up on remix duty is Gacha, fresh from his own debut on Apollo earlier this year. Gacha pushes Bordertown through his own lush atmospheric filters, dispensing with the vocal and instead building up layer upon layer of warm, dubby ambience with only touches of the original shining through the haze. It's a beautiful mix that once again shows Gacha's mastery of the mysterious, early-hours mood.
To be so established within the music industry and yet to still have the hunger to make music with the guts, attitude and verve of Bordertown is a sure sign that Shadowchild and Horx are capable of confounding all expectations; what they do next is impossible to predict, but whatever it is, in terms of raw grit and sheer visceral power, Bordertown will take some bettering.
Tracklisting:
A1 - Bordertown
A2 - Bordertown (Gacha remix)
B - Bordertown (Synkro edit)


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