BRETT JOHNSON – Eight-Tracks

Brett Johnson
Missing You
EIGHT-TRACKS – 8TR008
Release date: March 2, 2010
Beatport Pre-Release: February 2, 2010

1. Missing You
2. Missing You (Q-Burns Abstract Message Remix)
3. Missing You (Alland Byallo Remix)
4. Missing You (Space Bump Dub)

After years of intense negotiation, EIGHT-TRACKS has finally been able to snag an otherworldly release from our favorite psychedelic warrior, renowned DJ/producer Brett Johnson. Brett should need no introduction with his checkered past of releasing top notch bleeps and booms for labels like Classic Music Company, Freerange, and his own Aesoteric imprint. The last few years has found Brett wandering the globe and evading capture but finally our EIGHT-TRACKS team of techno-investigators were able to track him down at his Dallas-based secret headquarters. The result of this confrontation is “Missing You,” a gloriously melancholy cut that successfully bridges Brett’s affinity for potent house rhythms, Detroit-bred bass lines, and decidedly deeper intentions. It satisfies that necessary primal groove as it successfully strums the heartstrings.

Imprisoned studio warlock Q-Burns Abstract Message  was on hand to complement “Missing You” with a suspiciously spacious remix. Drawing inspiration from a pile of broken King Tubby records, Q-BAM’s version rattles within a moisture-soaked cell block, building into an analog epiphany further enhanced through a steaming, dusty spring reverb box. Totally slinky for the dancefloor, it aims to beguile the rarely hypnotized.

San Francisco’s KONTROL freak Alland Byallo was also enlisted to provide his magic touch to this already enchanted offering. Byallo’s treatment finds pounding machinery giving way to a concrete funk, layers of vocal drones and synth bellows providing an aural blanket sprinkled in shimmering melody. Alland’s hefty production strips “Missing You” of its melancholy and trades that for an ominous march, providing peak time fireworks when carefully placed in a DJ’s set.

Brett Johnson returns to close out the single, wrestling a Space Bump Dub from his original scheme. Here a steady bounce holds the structure as strident tones confront calming synth pads. The vocal from the original returns, now serving as a warm, reassuring force amidst the digital surroundings. The space between the beats matter here, with the listener/dancer given room to comfortably navigate the exotic sonic landscape. It’s deep stuff.

EIGHT-TRACKS welcomes you to embrace Brett Johnson’s “Missing You” and its crafty reworks, our first statement of 2010 and an encouraging signal for things to come.