UPFRONTBEATS

Joe Metzenmacher and Borka (and his gang, obviously) return to the Heideton fold with more evocative track titles. ‘Get Red’ could mean so many things. It’s the most powerful of all colours. Football teams wearing red are more successful than those who don’t (they’re 10% more likely to score than teams in other colours). Red is frequently used by food brands because it seduces inner cravings. Red conjures up so many possibilities from Communism and the Bolsheviks to bank overdrafts and Marilyn Monroe’s ruby-red lips. There’s red with embarrassment, red with desire, red lipstick, red hearts, red cross, red alert (and DJ Red Alert), red-handed, red herring, but perhaps more pertinently here, there’s red hot, which this latest Heideton release most surely is.

Joe, Borka (and the gang) open proceedings with a proper dancefloor banger that recalls the halcyon days of arguably Germany’s first great exponent of deep house, Plastic City’s Terry Lee Brown Jr. whose releases were killing 1990s floors in New York and elsewhere. ‘Get Red’ has a similar forceful drive, aided by an arpeggiated synth line and DJ Pierre-style strings, it motors forward as though its late for an appointment (perhaps it is, who knows’).

Meanwhile, the extremely perky remix delivered by S.A.M. takes ‘Get Red’ off into a slightly jauntier direction, with its faint echoes of the work of Robin ‘Jaydee’ Albers, it moves forward in a determined manner that suggests it won’t be swayed from reaching its intended destination: a very full dancefloor (or, let’s be realistic, lively livestream). A perfect counterweight to the original, in fact.

Closing the package Joe Metzenmacher steps up solo with ‘Art Of X’, which again offers countless possibilities for those of us wishing to divine greater meaning from song titles than the reality suggests. Could it have been inspired by Ultravox’s seminal proto techno track ‘Herr X” Maybe. Or New York slang for ecstasy as immortalised in Junior Vasquez’s slamming 1994 release ‘X’ on Tribal America’ Perhaps not. But what it does conjure up, for sure, is a delightfully spacey production that floats delightfully somewhere around the rings of Jupiter, while not forgetting its duty to make people move. It’s a veritable warm bubble bath of a track. Luxuriate in it for a while, take some time out for love. But don’t forget to dance. ‘ Bill Brewster