DNGLS Hooly EP (Len Faki Remixes)
Berghain's Faki works his blissful magic on the already gorgeous original version.
The original version of “Hooly,” produced by the French newcomer DNGLS and released on the similarly fresh-faced Barcelona label Anemone Recordings, is a gleaming gem of a sunrise-techno track, its shimmering, shivering synths floating above the distant thud of a plus-size kick drum. It was a simple yet sublime cut that found favor with the likes of Marcel Dettmann, Carl Craig, and Nina Kravitz—and Len Faki, the Berghain resident and head of the Figure Music label, wisely chooses not to mess with the template too much on this hits-the-spot remix. He keeps the high-end bliss intact—in fact, once it fully kicks in, the synths are perhaps even more prominent than in the original—while tightening up the lower register and percussion just a bit, and subtly adding a few barely-registering, atmospheric bits and pieces. And that’s enough, really: His version, while still gorgeous, somehow ends up being more club-worthy than the original by a mile, with a pair of tools—a percussion track and a beatless version—adding to the appeal for DJs. It’s great work from both DNGLS and Faki, and certainly bodes well for the upstart Anemone label.