Pressure Drop Remixed does as it says and is a full re-mix of Sophie Sirota's debut solo album by the noted Violist, singer and Electronic composer who is part of Whitstable's Coastal Electronauts scene, several of whose performers are enlisted to remix the album, along with several artists she has previously worked with during a career that includes playing with Tindersticks, Gabrielle, Paul Weller, Kim Deal and 4 hero et al.
The album opens with 50I50 Pure trance-The Endless Carousel Of Lust And Suffering Dub (Youth Remix) that has ambient washes with processed beats, slowly building a more propulsive beat to draw you deeper into that dark club trance you love and hate so much, ethereal sounds work well beneath the dancefloor beats making a good contrast, while the tension slowly builds.
Mood (4 Hero mix) takes the woozy central treated viola line and her first forays into working with A Mood MK11 Reverb pedal, adding some shimmering percussion, making it feel more laid back until it shifts when the drum and bass part breaks into the ambient loveliness.
If I Wrote A Song, Would You Like It (Shape Navigator Remix) opens on a rather Kraut synth part that repeats and slowly evolves, with Sophie's voice still an ambient background texture, the beats more upfront and some squiggly sounds trying to find a suitable response to her question. This becomes rather more haunting later in the song alongside the wall shaking bass.
Sophie's Tension (3 Head/Al Mac Remix) is a rather bleepy deep bass rumble, the Chase Bliss pedals get re-manipulated and a jagged guitar soars through the almost castanet style percussion.
I Feel (Will Materialise Remix) is feelings of intense angst and possibly fear, hoping and praying the tinnitus will stop soon, before the deadpan vocals arrive to lead us into an electroclash drum and bass club world, drawling over our ears in tribute to Graham Dowdall or Dids the Electronic dance music legend who worked with everyone from Ludus to Nico and Pere Ubu along with his solo work as DJ Gagarin, this slowly fades out to a cool minimalist ending.
Holding Te (Smelliot Remix) the processed viola with almost bird call like sounds, that could be used in an immersive sound bath or flotation tank chill out space, until it all gets molested by a hurricane of interference, like you are in the centre of a hurricane vortex getting flung far from where you started.
I Feel (BorjeNotBorje remix) moves the Dids tribute into a drum & bass percussive space, but with keyboards that mimic James Young's live openings to Fearfully in Danger but without Grahams African influenced percussion.
If I Wrote A Song Would You Like It? (Grace Griffin Blustery Day Remix) strips things down to a bass pulse with atmospherics slowly building with shakers and the ethereal vocal chants into a blissful Ultramarine like world.
Holding Tension (Riigs Remix) takes things slow with ruminations on just what kind of high wire tension you feel when the viola is perfectly tuned and weaving its way across the speakers, that tension creating the space for the dark bleeped interference to ruin your mood and aid a semi-psychic collapse.
The album closes with 50I50 Pure Ambient The Save Orient Of The Heart Dub (Youth Remix) it may be decades since Orient were saved by buckets being passed around, for a collection to save the football club, but this tune seems to echo the feelings of those fans, whose need for a local focal point and not a club destined for the top made them work on keeping the team alive, this has suitable heartbeats and persistent synth lines, it's almost funky enough for Lawrie Cunningham to dance to it.
Find out more at https://sophiesirota.bandcamp.com/album/pressure-drop-remixed https://www.facebook.com/coastalelectronauts/
