Onism: Remixed

Photay’s 'Onism' LP, released last year on Astro Nautico, is a vibrant, tightly woven tapestry of sound that lives and breathes in a language all its own. With careful listening, one can discern all the organic and synthetic elements that constitute its being - a far and deep-ranging spectrum of finely textured sounds both terrestrial and extraterrestrial. Like the album’s namesake, one can almost feel these songs yearning to burst forth from the confines of the record to continue recombinating in an infinite number of ways. With that in mind, Photay chose six different artists to do just that, picking up where he left off and seeing where it might lead them. Inaugurating a diverse set of reimaginations, club-guru Hubie Davison opens up with a bold and underlined heavy-rhythm house mix of ‘Screens’ that instantly compels the body to get up and bust a move. On ‘Aura’, Astro Nautico co-honcho Sam O.B. slows things down and lets the skies open up, with Photay’s original vocals now backdropped by a celebratory, neo-cosmic landscape of rainbows and purple rain glistening down over the Grand Canyon in space. Phil Moffa’s remix of ‘Outré Lux’ is something like the pitcher plant, softly luring unwitting victims into its trap with the promise of sweet nectar and then all of a sudden snapping down its jaws in the form of a fierce and unrelenting jungle break that leaves no room for escape. Remixer Yonsei takes the pads from ‘Storm’ and runs away with them through an HD hall of mirrors, with stilted percussion and punchy organ stabs leading the listener deep into a blissfully confused state. On ‘Off-Piste’, Astro Nautico newcomer Tatiana Heuman strips the lush original down to its percussive core and turns the energy to 11, amping it up into a raw, angular slapper that takes a second to breath before doubling down into a lurching triplet headbanger. Closing out the group is Clap! Clap!’s wildly percussive reinterpretation of ‘The Everyday Push’, taking the original’s familiar melody on an exotic journey into the rainforest with a frantic mid-section sounding like a stampede of elephants being chased through the jungle. Photay's 'Onism' LP is available on limited-edition vinyl and all digital platforms via Astro Nautico.