Koze, real name Stefan Kozalla, should need little introduction - renowned as one of the world's best DJs and one of its most distinctive, trailblazing producers, having released innumerable classic records both as a solo artist and as part of International Pony.
DJ Koze - Reincarnations
2007 was a particularly prominent year for Koze as remixer, and it's represented by several tracks here including his warm, glitchy funk mix of Matthew Dear's 'Elementary Lover'. His remix of 'Atlas' by Warp-signed US math-rockers Battles was a massive crossover success, finding favour not just with house and techno fans but lovers of adventurous rock and electronic music everywhere.
Koze scored a big hit last year with his take on Matias Aguayo's tongue-in-cheek ode to 'Minimal' - a club-friendly but wonderfully strange remix, which achieved a timeless filtered disco sound but shot through with sick edits and creative sampling. Koze is maybe the only producer whose creative vision is as skewed, complex and good-humoured as that of Nôze, and as such he was the perfect choice to re-work the Parisian duo's Get Physical single 'Danse Avec Moi'.
He sculpts a magnificent, impossible to pigeon-hole remix that sounds like ballroom music from a distant, twisted future, underscoring Nôze and Dani Siciliano's vocals with low-down distortion effects and strings which vary in tone from menacing to celebratory, often in the space of the same bar. Oh, and there's a thrilling brass, drum and double bass break about midway through that you simply need to hear.
And then we're brought bang up to the present day: Koze tackles the new Buzzin' Fly single from Ben Watt, 'Guinea Pig', giving it a wonderfully skippy house makeover and delivering one of the most ecstatic breakdowns you'll hear all year! Look out too for an impossibly deep dancefloor burner in the shape of Sascha Funke's 'Mango Cookie'. The CD draws to close with a twist of humour and musical imagination typical of Koze – a remix of crooning, extravagantly romantic German pop tune 'Ich Liebe Euch' by Hildegard Knef.
Reincarnations – The remix chapter 2001 – 2009 makes the case for Koze as a quietly mercurial innovator not just of dance music, but of modern music at large.
Track List CD:
1 DJ Koze – Hi Friends (Intro)
2 Matthew Dear – Elementary Lover (DJ Koze Remix) 2007
3 DJ Koze vs Sid LeRock – Naked (DJ Koze Remix) 2007
4 Battles – Atlas (DJ Koze Remix) 2007
5 Heiko Voss – Think About You (DJ Koze Remix) 2003
6 Matias Aguayo – Minimal (DJ Koze Mix) 2008
7 Wechsel Garland – Swim (Kosi's Swim-Edit) 2006
8 Nôze Feat. Dani Siciliano – Danse Avec Moi (DJ Koze Rework) 2008
9 Lawrence – Rabbit Tube (DJ Koze Remix) 2007
10 Wechsel Garland – Mutes (DJ Koze's broken CD-Mix) 2006
11 Ben Watt – Guinea Pig (Vocal Variation with Julia Biel) (DJ Koze Remix) 2009
12 Malaria! Vs Chicks On Speed – Kaltes Klares Wasser (DJ Koze & The Tease Rmx) 2001
13 Sascha Funke – Mango Cookie (DJ Koze's Pink Moon Remix) 2008
14 Hildegard Knef – Ich Liebe Euch (DJ Koze Remix) 2002
Track List Vinyl:
A1 DJ Koze – Hi Friends (Intro)
A2 Matthew Dear – Elementary Lover (DJ Koze Remix) 2007
A3 DJ Koze vs Sid LeRock – Naked (DJ Koze Remix) 2007
B1 Battles – Atlas (DJ Koze Remix) 2007
B2 Wechsel Garland – Swim (Kosi's Swim-Edit) 2006
C1 James Figurine – Apologies (DJ Koze Mix) 2006
C2 Lawrence – Rabbit Tube (DJ Koze Remix) 2007
D1 Sascha Funke – Mango Cookie (DJ Koze's Pink Moon Remix) 2008 D2 Hildegard Knef – Ich Liebe Euch (DJ Koze Remix) 2002