[Plak Records]

Chaton, founder of Plak Records, has produced serviceable if spartan grooves for Sthmlaudio Recordings and his own label since they both debuted in 2001. I find his tracks are most ear-catching when they’re remixed, as they have been by Agnès (“Catch the Beat”) and now Ripperton. He constructs the canvas for others to splash their ideas across, a notion bolstered by the way the artists were credited on their newest release. Chaton’s Swiss countrymen Ripperton and Agnès take the “+91 Ahead” framework to new and disparate heights for “Session 2.”

Ripperton’s version hues closest to the original’s austere percussion, but his approach twinkles with a jazzy, live performance vibe thanks to acoustic-sounding drums. Lit by chipper droplets of piano chords, lifted with soothing swells and informed by incomprehensible vocals, Ripperton’s Los Barrios Mix mounts a charm offensive on its boogying audience that won’t soon be forgotten. Not to be outdone, Agnès burrows from Geneva to Kingston, Jamaica for a rework swelling with spaced out echo. His taut percussion laced with slivered guitar licks is soon shrouded in gauzy dub ripples, ringing out against cavernous walls. As Chaton’s canvas has given rise to one of the best (if belatedly received) remixes packages of 2008, his frames will likely stay in demand.