After debuting on Derrick May’s Transmat label in 1990, Detroit’s Burden brothers started their 430 West imprint the following year as an outlet for their deep but volcanic brand of electronic dance music. Since then, sibling Lenny and Laurence (sometimes joined by Lynell, Lorne and Lance) have unleashed a string of Motor City classics, ranging from their Octivation label debut to the chart-licking vocal charge of Blackwater.
To celebrate their label’s 20th, the Burdens have invited their favourite producers to re-work catalogue highlights, starting with themselves tackling both Dema and Meridian with symphonic, but ripsnorting majesty. These are followed by nine interstellar remixes by Cari Lekebusch, Alexander Kowalski, Vince Watson and Luke Slater. Sandwell District’s mind-melting take on that Transmat debut, I Believe, uncorks a sonic blizzard of Mayday strings and disembodied vocals, while Aril Brikha turns Underground Resistance hook-up Daystar Rising into a rich cauldron typical of the multi-layered interweaving which evolves through many Octave One tracks. The merciless dynamics on Ken Ishii’s incendiary remix of Nicolette are breath-taking, while Ann Sanderson’s vocal excursions on Blackwater and Somedays are respectively reworked into euphoria-stoking Motor City techno-soul by Germany’s Alter Ego and UR’s Gerald Mitchell – the double-pronged finale of a monumental set.
