Chaim // Ur Around Me [Bpitch Control]
Ur Around Me by German producer Chaim is a deep, dark delight, and one of the finest tracks I have heard this year. The tune is based around a really solid groove, but it’s what added on top of that which really makes the production a stand out. To me the track sounds possessed, with a real voices-from-the-beyond feel to the snatches of distorted vocal that come through in the intro, prior to the arrival of the bassline. We are then treated to the main vocal element of the track, which also sounds other worldly – it’s as if the producer had hired a studio and conducted a séance within it, then somehow managed to contact the ghosts of a 70s funk act who had previously recorded in the same space, and then used a recording of the voices that came through on the track. That’s probably not what he did, mind you – as we all know, everyone records at home these days.
Haunted house music may seem like a cheap gag on the surface, but the analogy works perfectly for me – it can even be stretched further, with the keys in the main breakdown having the eerie feel of a piano being played in an empty upstairs room. There’s even a sinister aspect to the lyrics, although it’s hard to pick them up properly due to the way the vocal has been manipulated – what we can make out though, certainly doesn’t sound right. We’ve all been in a club when one track has united the entire dance floor in fist punching euphoria, akin to being on a football terrace on a right good afternoon – this is the kind of tune that, when played at the right time, you could imagine everyone feeling just as much – but having their own more individual, introverted experience to. I love this track, there’s not a lot else I can say really.
My Favourite Robot’s remix uses the aforementioned keys as its focal point and builds various other chunkier elements around it, before introducing the vocal snatches from the introduction of the original. We get more than 3 minutes in before some beats arrive, and then some bizarre, almost harpsichordesque stabs come into play, with some guitar-like effects. You get the impression that the intention here was to strike a similar mood to the original here, but it doesn’t work for me in that respect.
Final track En Milim is a very impressive tech house work out that starts of in menacing fashion, with nice low end and some busy hats, before the big stabs of the main bassline appear – a repeated vocal motif then comes into play and it all works very well, building momentum very nicely, before the arrival of the whispered main vocal, which is very effective indeed. This is another very fine piece of work, and the quality and feel of the track make it a very suitable accompaniment to the title track.
Top stuff all round, with two tracks that I would definitely bust a move to.
Release Date: Out Now
Words: Stevie Reid
