Claude VonStroke is what you would call a "producer's producer." Growing up near the musical mecca of Detroit, VonStroke crafts technically tight instrumentals that invoke the spirit of first-wave techno. Released on his Dirtybird imprint, last year's Urban Animal processes broad house beats through downbeat, sparse and textural filters. Pulling together a group of up-and-coming producers (alongside remix lifers Photek and Krust) to rework these tracks, Urban Animals RMXS gives listeners a further deconstructed look into a batch of songs that already sound deconstructed.
Besides VonStroke's own reworking of Urban Animal's "Can't Wait," most of the remixers on Urban Animal RMXS retain his gooey, absorbing sound: Dixon works with chorded piano rhythms and Metalheadz-style sampling on the title track, while Tanner Ross gives "The Bridge" a southern hip-hop sheen. But it's the left-field remixes, including Kill Frenzy's bonkers production on goofy anthem "Dood" and Jimmy Edgar's codeine house sound on "Lay it Down Smoked," that make Urban Animal RMXS a suitable extension of VonStroke's warped mindset.
(Dirty Bird)Besides VonStroke's own reworking of Urban Animal's "Can't Wait," most of the remixers on Urban Animal RMXS retain his gooey, absorbing sound: Dixon works with chorded piano rhythms and Metalheadz-style sampling on the title track, while Tanner Ross gives "The Bridge" a southern hip-hop sheen. But it's the left-field remixes, including Kill Frenzy's bonkers production on goofy anthem "Dood" and Jimmy Edgar's codeine house sound on "Lay it Down Smoked," that make Urban Animal RMXS a suitable extension of VonStroke's warped mindset.
