Woolfy vs. Projections Set Me Loose
Last year’s The Return of Love, Woolfy vs. Projections’ second LP, trod much of the […]
Last year’s The Return of Love, Woolfy vs. Projections’ second LP, trod much of the same territory as its predecessor, 2008’s The Astral Projections of Starlight. This was expected, as the duo of Simon James and Dan Hastie trades in velvety yacht-disco that isn’t concerned about getting anywhere too fast. Easygoing as the approach may be, Woolfy vs. Projections know its way around a concise hook, and one of the best on The Return of Love was the sultry “Set Me Loose.” Realizing this, Permanent Vacation has commissioned its release as a single, accompanied by remixes from Lexx, The Drifter, and El_Txef_A. None of the results are radically different from the original, but they adequately highlight its details.
The album version of “Set Me Loose,” it should be said, does appear here. It’s a low-lit mood piece led by jittery disco guitar and filtered-down piano, with a hushed falsetto almost humbly creeping in midway through. The remixes hone in on these elements and attempt to flesh out their dancefloor potential. Lexx’s is perhaps the most successful at this: the Swiss producer gives his version an alluring, amplified bassline and tumbling percussion, so that when the vocal is deployed, the track is already in the midst of a confident strut. The Drifter, meanwhile, makes a subby, narrowly grinding bassline the star and couples it with syncopated shakers, until a breakdown lets the vocal fully wander in. This formula repeats again later in the track, with the vocal ushering in a regrouping of the track’s parts. Finally, El_Txef_A teases out bits of the original in a stepping, restrained beginning section. It’s somewhat of a trudge, but its final section is a different track entirely, and its powerful stride is underlined by a bassline similar to the one that reappears throughout Kassem Mosse’s Workshop 12. Bits of strings and piano threaten to send the piece into dramatics, but the producer smartly keeps them low in the mix. Like its counterparts, the track keeps the original’s cautious romanticism in full view.