[Contexterrior]

Much is made of producers who craft their tracks with a little help from their friends, as if the quality of the track somehow hinges on the authenticity of it being a solo effort. Loco Dice and Timo Maas both produce with Martin Buttrich, though their records sound nothing like each other, and Buttrich’s sound different again. French born Bloody Mary has been releasing some impressive minimal gears for the past couple of years, first with Tassilo Ippenberger and more recently has done so with the help of Sam Sierra. Her debut album, Black Pearl, will be out the first of June on Contexterrior (also their first artist album release) and will feature guest production appearances by Sam Sierra, Argenis Brito, Danton Eeprom, Jay Haze and Jona.

For the album’s first single, the title cut is handed over to Jay Haze and Sascha Funke for a little re-tooling, with Funke turning in an extra edit on top of his remix. The original mix by Bloody Mary has the makings of a splintered, intricate dubstep damager, but adopts a steady kick drum and some tribal percussion and heads off in a slightly different territory. The deep two fingered bass line is a rolling hum that works at the ebb and flow of the track’s rhythm, it’s muted tones starkly opposed to the bright glitchy smear of snare noise. Her press release cites the maudlin imagery of Baudelaire as an inspiration; and there is something overwhelmingly beautiful yet bleak about “Black Pearl” when the strings enter the track.

Jay Haze’s edit gussies the track up for the dance floor, adding some phasing chords and a few other elements. It’s a good edit, but with these changes he loses the chaste allure of the original. Sascha Funke’s remix does very little for nearly three minutes, but when he sets about recreating a much warmer depiction of the original with his gentle organ like bass, breathy choral “ahhs” and orchestral accents you want to just keep building forever. His rework, on the other hand, is a percussive DJ track grinding out the groove for four and a half minutes before a brief stint on the glockenspiel brings things to a close –- not exactly home listening fare but in the right context a nice extra treat. It’s Bloody Mary’s original mix that steals the show for me; and as an indication of her forthcoming album it looks to be a good year for both her and Contexterrior.