ARTIST...: DJ Koze
TITLE....: Pick Up
YEAR.....: 2018
LABEL....: Pampa Records
CAT.NO...: PAMPA031
GENRE....: House
TIME.....: 19:43
SIZE.....: 36.51 MB
QUALITY..: 258kbps/48.0kHz/Joint Stereo
ENCODER..: LAME
SOURCE...: Vinyl
RLS.DATE.: 2023/12/08
WEBSITE..: https://www.discogs.com/release/11854219
TRACKLIST
A1) (09:57) Pick Up (12" Extended Disco Version)
B1) (09:46) The Love Truck
DJ Koze might be one of the world's best producers, but above all he's a DJ, and it's
his DJ ear that governs. Just as in a great set, so with his releases: ôSeeing
Aliensö came out of nowhere, a big buzzing beast of a track, to announce that Koze
was back on the scene and prime everyone for the coming album, knock knock. But now
that Koze has your attention, it's time to remind everyone what's most important
about club music, pull things back, take a turn to the left, and get deep into the
groove.
Thus ôPick Upö: the second single from knock knock is 100% pure groove, doubly so in
the extended 12ö version. In a sense it's incredibly familiar û it is essentially a
filter disco record, very close to something you could imagine coming out of Paris
around the turn of the millennium. But of course, this is Koze. Nothing is normal or
familiar in his world, and he's taken this most foundational of clubland staples into
new territory. Flipping samples of Gladys Knight & the Pips ôNeither One Of Us (Wants
to Be the First to Say Goodbye)ö and Melba MooreÆs ôPick Me Up, IÆll Danceô, it
creates something completely airborne, shot through with emotions such as gods must
feel: not quite explicable to the human mind but strong enough to knock you off your
feet. In its way it's absolutely as powerful as ôSeeing Aliensö, but it comes in like
the proverbial iron fist in a glove of velvet.
The flip, a ten-minute new track, ôThe Love Truckö is a big contrast again. If ôPick
Upö is giddy flight, ôThe Love Truckö is woozy floating. Its sharp, clicking
percussion recalls 2000s minimal techno, but this time absolutely nothing is generic.
The long, intense, on-and-off bass tones, the flickers of birdsong, the pure voices
slipping in backwards as if from the future... it's all like the most blissful dream,
and culminates in a coda so subtle yet so beautiful it's like ever time you've ever
seen the sun rise and thought ôI never want this to endö, all the while understanding
deep down that the fleeting nature of the pleasure is also what give it its power.
But of course, being created with that consummate DJ's ear, it's also full of the
thrill of wondering what Koze has in store next.
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