Abe Duque: Following My Heart / Disco Nights
Process Recordings
Abe Duque continues to roll out one EP after another, although in this case it's remixers Oliver Huntemann and Jay Haze who are doing the lion's share of the work. The two-track release is the final chapter in a remix series that has seen Joey Beltram, Hell, Marc Romboy, Max Cooper, Tigerskin and King Roc giving tracks from Duque's Don't Be So Mean album makeovers.
Huntemann opens “Following My Heart” on a moody tip but soon the groove kicks in and the track begins breathing fire. In this classic club workout, Duque's gravelly voice repeatedly intones “What's a like this / What's a like that” as rattlesnake rattles swoop, and the bass-stoked tune, punctuated by Virginia Nascimento's voice, embraces ever more fervently its bangin' tech-house persona. The even more powerful “Disco Nights” finds Jay Haze undercoating Blake Baxter's vocal with a bass-crawling disco pulse and hi-hats so sharp they could slice meat. While Baxter exhorts clubbers to crowd the dancefloor (“Let your body free”), Haze works up a terrific funk-house pulse so infectious and electric it'd accomplish the same without Baxter's encouragement. For the record, “Disco Nights” doesn't appear on Don't Be So Mean but no one should complain when it sounds so tasty.April 2010