Various Artists 'Relish Compilation 2' (Relish) Released 23/11/09

Despite the fact that it doesn’t appear until last, the absolute highlight of the second Relish label compilation is Prins Thomas’ slow-burning remix of Nemesi’s ‘Jurasico’. It’s perhaps unsurprising – like that of his sometime partner in crime Hans-Peter Lindstrom, his spaced out take on modern disco comes across in slow-motion, soundtracking an imaginary set of dancers that seem to draw slow-fading vapour trails as they move. This thirteen-minute epic is no exception, melting successive layers of pulsing synth together to form an incredibly graceful slab of celestial house that moves from minimal to maximal and back down again by its beatless close. The only downside, as far as the entire disc is concerned, is that it relegates everything else here to mere hors d’oeuvres, stomach lining primers before the main course and a long night on the tiles.
 
Still, that’s not entirely the fault of the other artists on here. Headman’s Relish Recordings has a tight line in disco and funk-influenced modern electronic sounds – his own ‘Random Disco’ opens the disc in lean and stripped back style with frazzled melodic fireworks over a tough bass stomp. Similarly, The C90s trade in a constantly morphing piece of instrumental electro-pop that harks unashamedly back to its eighties roots.

Elsewhere, the two remixes of Units’ ‘High Pressure Days’ give a sense of the label’s breadth of interest. On the one side, Rory Phillips turns in a taut and muscular punk-funk workout reminiscent of the earliest day of the Rapture’s alliance with DFA; later, Headman lifts the central melody further to the fore and makes it the track’s focus over a curiously muted house jam. Yet the feeling remains that the source material itself isn’t quite strong enough to stand up to either remix treatment – the vocals in particular detract from what could have remained pleasant, if slightly unremarkable, dance-worthy takes.

Better is the C90s’ hyperspeed rework of Headman’s ‘Dirt’, ramping up the disc’s pace to a whipcrack bass grind before dropping the ground beneath its feat. Michoacan’s ‘Slow Remix’ of David Gilmour Girls’ ‘Tune In Your Aura’ is an airy respite from straightforward dancefloor pressure, easing off in a delicately psychedelic manner with a cyclical motif that underpins its entire runtime. Ultimately though, where the disc succeeds is in confirming Prins Thomas’ singular talent. The skill involved in managing to turn any source track, no matter how accomplished, into such a beast is worthy of turning heads, even if it is at the expense of the rest of the compilation’s contributors.