Artist: Patch Park
Title: Spaceshuttle Backpack
Label: Little Mountain Recordings
By: Carleton Neil | 11 February 2009
Tracklist:

• 1. Original Mix
• 2. Gaby Dershin Mix
• 3. PrinsJan Vs Dennis Ruyer Mix

Patch Park "Spaceshuttle Backpack"

Perusing Patch Park's playlists and discographies are the closest thing to being like a kid in a candy shop. Track after track, you walk down aisles, pulling items off the shelves, 'I want that, I want that, I want that'. It's in no way due to things being cheap and sweet, in fact, quite the opposite. Perry van de Vrede has an innate understanding of the microscopic and macroscopic of electronic music. In between beats, his deft programming is complex but not cluttered; his forays from kick to snare are tumultuous in the best of ways, understanding musical space and tension. On the whole, he keeps things simple but not sparse, snaring the listener with a groove and inserting subtle changes.

Flirting between house and techno he manages to keep things meaty whether he's remixing on Frisky Records or Audio Therapy. He's been given a chance to do some original production on Sander Kleinenberg's Little Mountain Recordings, which is where he has released 'Spaceshuttle Backpack'.

Fans of Patch Park's remix of Sultan and Ned Shepard's 'Eye Spy' will recognize the use of shaky hats in the original mix. Hearing only two beats into the track can give you an idea of the movement inherent in Patch Park's productions; the way the hats crumble away from the snares almost as though the track is repeatedly broken down and rebuilt. Wasting no time introducing the bassline layered by fills that squawk quietly as they grow, the track pushes and pulls as though you're trying to coax your friend out onto the dance floor. Simple fades and EQ intros are exemplary of the house nature of the track. Swelling with synths in the breakdown, the track peaks and settles squarely back on the bassline with the addition of a few stabs that mark the end of the musical phrases, providing that extra swing.

Gaby Dershin's remix takes the track at face value and sends it off to the launch pad right away on some big kicks and clattering fills that grow in intensity. The track feels excited from the get-go, but the first half of it holds back in anticipation as though it's in pre-ignition check, keeping some of the feel of the original in the background. It is hard not picture the breakdown, supports dropping away from and the engines coming to life, all gauges in the red, blasting the track into the stratosphere. Dershin cleverly levels the track off amid sustained trumpeting awe as though one is looking back down at the planet they just left, corkscrewing through fills out into the void of the outro.

PrinsJan and Dennis Ruyer's remix is the open space continuation of Dershin's take-off, drifting into coast mode on a gentler but more spacious trajectory of percussion. Reverberating fills and cavernous synths drift by slowly while the mix is punctuated by deep radio chatter.

Patch Park's attention to detail keeps things interesting for headphones but his production and progression are able to maintain the energy on the dance floor while the Gaby Dershin and PrinsJan and Dennis Ruyer's remixes flesh out the ideas from the original. While your parents may have told you not to accept candy from strangers, one piece from Patch Park and you'll want him in your repertoire. 'Spaceshuttle Backpack' is out now on Little Mountain Recordings.