[Red Music Records]

Croatian disco DJ/producer Ilija Rudman first appeared on my radar back in early 2007 with the After Midnight EP on Love Is War. Its killer cut bore a distinctly different lean than many records at the time, sounding like a mix between Steve Kotey’s Bear Funk productions and LFO’s rather exceptional electro. By this time he’d been kicking around for a number of years, releasing tracks on his own Red Music as early as 2003. Since then Rudman has slowly risen through the ranks, courting remixes from the likes of Pete Herbert, The Revenge and Mark E over the years. The original “Call Me Tonight,” which dropped in February, was a sharp turn for the boogie — all slapped bass, cowbells and 808 drums. Here, however, he passes the joint to a few of his old friends for a workout.

First up is Greg “Reel to Reel” Wilson who keeps some of the finer points of the original — the cowbells most notably — and throws in a few added extras of his own from the central vocal sample, a slow moving piano riff and a chunkier bass line which make it a somewhat more dancefloor friendly, Hacienda-esque re-rub. Rhythm Based Lovers go all dubby disco on the tune with their “Dub Me Tonight” mix. Keeping the groovy pace and sparseness of the original, they push it further into ’80s electro-funk akin to Chicken Lips with shuffling 808s, knowingly rudimentary ancillary percussion, synth stabs and vamps, the obligatory echoes and a sick additional slap bass line that for some reason evokes thoughts of 80s NY montages. Seems it’s left to Scottish producer Graeme Clark, aka The Revenge, to provide a mix rooted deeply in the 21st century, which he does — kind of. His “1-800 Mix” has all the hallmarks of a classic deep disco house number, though it’s strangely hard to place. Part deep house circa Jon Cutler’s “It’s Yours” thanks to its reverbed funk inspired piano riff, part modern disco for the floor — all pulsating bass lines, synthetic claps and in keeping with the boogie of the original, rustic sequencing and scads of space for each part. No denying it’s a pretty hot mix by The Revenge, however on this EP it lacks the sheer memorable audaciousness of the Rhythm Based Lovers remix. Either way, each of these remixes is worth checking out; I suspect disco kids will be breaking this one out ’til 2012 at least.