Nina Kraviz Marcellus Pittman & Urban Tribe Remixes
Nina Kraviz‘s recent success has brought her pretty far from her Underground Quality beginnings, but […]
Nina Kraviz‘s recent success has brought her pretty far from her Underground Quality beginnings, but the Russian producer has never been shy about the influence of innovative American dance music on her work. Detroit’s Marcellus Pittman and Urban Tribe, this EP’s eponymous remixers, are less probable influences on her sound than, say, K. Alexi Shelby, but both nevertheless manage to flesh out the more abstract aspects of Kraviz’s originals.
Even so, Marcellus Pittman’s take on “Working” is pretty far from anything in his own catalog. True to form, the track is a wandering percussive workout, moving from squirming, acidic, tom-led trips to low-key jacking patterns and back again, all infused with discordant stabs out of some unusual arcade game. Essentially, it’s Pittman delivering what he does best, in the form of a confounding, constantly evolving slow-burner. The flip is a more forceful proposition. Urban Tribe, the revolving door project headed by Sherard Ingram (a.k.a. DJ Stingray), delivers the considerably more linear “Don’t Lie To Nina” remix of “Taxi Talk.” Ingram leaves Kraviz’s vocal—which hints at intimate, dimly lit conversation—intact, while his sonics send the proverbial taxi careening down an empty freeway. Ingram’s zapping rhythm has a hollowly echoing, metallic skip, and an arpeggiated bassline twists underneath Kraftwerk-esque synth motifs. It’s not as daring as other Urban Tribe material, but it’s a successful, propulsive transformation all the same. And for the picky, the record comes complete with a slightly pared-down “No Strings” version. In any case, the spareness of Kraviz’s tracks easily lends itself to reimagining.