Heartthrob: Baby Kate Remixes
Minus

Paco Osuna: Crazy
Plus 8

Heartthrob's psychotropic “Baby Kate,” a highlight of last year's min2MAX comp, gets overhauled by Minus cadets Magda, Troy Pierce, Plastikman, and others on this septet of vinyl and digital cuts. Certainly it helps when the original material's so strong, but the eminently talented guests re-shape the track into memorably cubistic variations. Magda gets the party started with her “Where's My Baby's Daddy?” mix by alternating the timid burble of the tune's central motif with a distorted bass growl that shouts it down at every turn. Konrad Black morphs the tune into a hot-wired, electro raver while Sascha Funke turns it into a stampeding dynamo that grows increasingly entrancing with every buoyant skip and clap. Richie Hawtin contributes a Consumed-styled Plastikman remix that strips the tune bare, leaving a mere trace of the original's theme and replacing it with lunar blips and deep space signals. It's odd that the three digital exclusives were excluded from the vinyl version, considering that they're just as strong. Troy Pierce's aptly-named “First Day of Rehab” mix wanders about in a deliriously druggy and increasingly hallucinatory daze and Robotman's techno mix jacks purposefully, but perhaps the sweetest treatment of the seven is the snappy funk workout by Adam Beyer and Jesper Dahlbäck that's wonderfully straight-up, crisp, and tight. Heartthrob's original reigns supreme but these versions represent a more than credible complement.

Spanish DJ and producer Paco Osuna steps out with a polished quintet of combustible cuts on his Crazy 12-inch. Lead track “Crazy” at first sounds almost too minimal but Osuna quickly grabs the bull by the horns with an irrepressibly swinging gait and well-timed bleeps, pings, and splashes; best of all is an acidy riff which writhes like an insect doused with gas and set aflame. Swishing hi-hats and chugging bass lines nurture a simmering swing throughout “Joakhim” while ripples of distorted noises scuttle across the track's slippery surface. Elsewhere, “Sechamps” marries pinprick melodies to a rumbling bass pulse while the acid stormer “Cretine” (billed as an extra bonus track for download) caps the release with explosive snare splashes and an infectious jack. Despite the EP's kinetic energy level, Osuna's style is so relatively understated it's easy to underappreciate the finesse he brings to the disc's Plastikman-styled material.

April 2007