(Hussle & Bussle/EMI)

A1: Phil Collins Running (Original Mix)
A2: Phil Collins Running (Teschnik remix)
B1: Phil Collins Running (Smithmonger remix)
B2: Square Wave 2

Brisbane-based duo Kid Kay Ferris (in real life Danny Muller and Joel Joslin) turned quite a few heads with their debut album ‘Colour Me Badd’ (released last year on their own Nutzn’Boltz Recordings imprint), which smoothly fused highly-detailed breaks with retro-styled rave and hardcore sounds to create a fresh pop-fuelled hybrid. With a series of well-received live shows adding to the buzz surrounding the duo (which only continued to grow with the inclusion of ‘Phil Collins Running’ on Ministry of Sound’s ‘Clubber’s Guide To…’), Kid Kay Ferris have lifted this first 12” from the album, with Sydney-based label Hussle commissioning fellow Queensland outfit Teschnik as well as UK-based breaks producer Smithmonger to provide reworkings.

On the A-side of this 12”, the Original Mix of ‘Phil Collins Running’ differs slightly from the album version in that it features an extended intro beats section and outro to facilitate mixing for DJs spinning the black plastic, but apart from that contains all the chaotic LFO-esque synth bleeps and crisp breakbeats of the original. Teschnik’s reworking places a tight 4/4 beat under the manically overloading synths and fuses it to a funky tech-house synth bassline that escalates alongside sinister beeps into a frenzy of slamming house kicks and squealing hardcore overload – it’s also definitely my pick of the mixes included here.

On the flip, UK-based breaks producer Smithmonger grafts chunky TCR-style nu-skool breaks around a deep rolling bassline and housey cymbals reminiscent of Hyper’s excellent recent Sugababes remix, in a reworking that pretty much omits all of the original track’s elements, aside from the robotically-spoken “just keep running” that repeats throughout. Fans of Hyper & Rhymes / Rennie Pilgrem / Atomic Hooligan should definitely head for this mix. I must admit also that the inclusion of album track ‘Square Wave 2’ had me scratching my head though, as on ‘Colour Me Badd’ it merely serves as a short instrumental segue between tracks, its 8-bit sounding arcade game music providing a humourous interlude amongst a tracklisting that definitely didn’t take itself too seriously. Here, it comes across as more of a detached oddity, and it’s also hard to see why it might be especially desirable to DJs on vinyl as opposed to say, almost all of the other tracks on the album. Apart from this minor quibble however, this is an excellent 12” package of mixes well worth hunting down. You’ll have to be quick though – apparently most copies have already gone overseas, with only a small number being made available locally.

Check out: www.nutznboltzrecords.com