Versions’  leaves out the vocal accompaniment and exposes the production as it drifts off into instrumental effervescence…

This second breathtaking CD leaves out the vocal accompaniment and exposes the terryfingly deep Basic Channel production as it drifts off into instrumental effervescance. The hallmarks are all there; Mark Ernestus and Moritz Von Oswald have already set the world ablaze once, twice, three, four times with their work as Basic Channel and the splintering into microscopic, heavyweight offshoots by way of the M series, Main Street, Chain Reaction, Rhythm and Sound and, of course, Burial Mix. It’s hard to over-emphasise just how important their music has been to us over the last two decades and, for that matter, just how substantial their impact has had on everything that has taken place in electronic music since.

Following convention, each of these labels has offered a catalogue up on record (in this case 10″ releases) before compiling the music. This is, in fact, the second Burial Mix compilation, the first “showcase” concentrating on the label’s collaborations with Paul St Hilaire, aka Tikiman, for its opening set of releases. This second installment divides itself into Vocal and Instrumental “Versions” (the Vocal tracks are collected seperately on a second release), displaying the last seven releases in their entirety, plus “Mash Down Babylon” (a new take on “March Down Babylon”), and features a by-now totally classic collection of tracks that in their time have all been singles of the week for us here.

Just thinking of the majestic exuberance of “King in My Empire”, or the breathtaking space of “Making Histroy” makes it hard to fathom how this material hasn’t really aged a day in all these years…