Korallreven – As Young As Yesterday (Girl Unit Remix)
Korallreven are a Swedish duo that make the sort of music that only Swedes seem to be able to – rich and tropical yet also strangely icy and detached. The pair definitely share a sound with the likes of Air France and The Tough Alliance but come at things from a more a fully dance orientated direction. New single “As Young As Yesterday” showcases this excellently, with it’s beautiful melody and upbeat tempo laying the framework for a range of interesting remix possibilities.
So brace yourselves pals, for we are about to utter a very filthy word indeed. TRANCE. Yes, that most reviled of genres has for some time now been sneaking it’s way back into popular forms of dance. Admittedly many of these are terrible; Example’s rave-rap, Skrillex’s trancestep and overwhelming amounts ecstasy-induced R&B all painfully spring to mind.
Night Slug’s Girl Unit was definitely contemplating trance dynamics when constructing his remix of Korallreven, however he has pulled off something rather remarkable. This is by no means the type of music that will be appearing on an Armin Van Buuren compilation anytime soon, even if the massively extended breakdowns that make up much of the track are high on dramatic reverb, diva-ish vocals and euphoric synths. In fact, when the crisp, techy, tight beats do drop, you’re very much reminded that this is the work of a forward-thinking producer with Jam City‘s influence being particularly obvious. There’s also a hint of the bouncier side of the Dirtybird label and we could easily see this being spun by Justin Martin or Claude Vonstroke, or perhaps in Berlin by Scuba.
We feel that this record potentially calls for a new sub-genre so here’s our go at suggesting some: Bootytrance / Tranceycrunk / Swedo-London-Bass / Emotional-trancecore. Unlikely that any of those will stick, but perhaps you could suggest some of your own? Certainly, we’ve not really heard anything like this before and wonder if it might be the start of a fresh wave of music that credibly utilises one of the least respectable of all genres.
The EP is available now digitally from iTunes and Amazon, and pre-orders for vinyl can be made at Acephale, shipping by the end of this month. The full remix package contains a hazy, washed out re-imagining by Panda Bear as well as B-Side “The Final Fantasy” which reworks the title track into something more fully dance with hints of The Field in it’s build up. Don’t sleep on this, we can see big things ahead.
Korallreven - As Young As Yesterday (Girl Unit Remix)
BONUS (From Korallreven’s excellent “Dream Within A Dream” remixtape):
Ciara - Deuces (Korallreven Remix)
