1. White Dwarf (extended mix) 5.07
2. White Dwarf (dub version) 5.43
3. White Dwarf (The Juan Maclean remix) 7.16
4. White Dwarf (2020 Soundsystem remix) 7.10
5. White Dwarf (Freakslastdaysofdiscoredo) 7.51
6. White Dwarf (Wink Vocal Reinterpretation) 8.59
7. White Dwarf (Zeefungk mix Steve Kotey edit) 8.57

Chicken Lips’ recent third album ‘Making Faces’ showed the UK-based trio increasingly incorporating elements of live funk and soul into their house / electro-based productions, a stylistic shift that’s certainly showcased on this second single to be lifted from it.

In its original extended mix form ‘White Dwarf’ certainly carries more than a hint of the influences of both the DFA camp and Soulwax, with a fat funk-infused live bassline propelling its way beneath crisp, punching electro-house beats and icy synth effects, Johnny Spencer’s crooning vocals sitting somewhere between Rick James and Who Made Who as they soar between soul falsetto and dirty funk growl. There’s also a suitably strong dub mix that reduces the original prominent vocals to mere echoed entrances whilst also pushing the crisp electro-house rhythms and riffing funk guitars considerably further to the foreground; it’s fair to say that of the two mixes, the later one is the one you’re probably going to want to play to a packed dancefloor at 3am.

The DFA’s The Juan Maclean comes across as particularly appropriate remix choice here, and in this case the former Six Finger Satellite member pushes things into cowbell-laden electro-house funk territory that comes across as similar to a more electronics-based incarnation of The Rapture, jagged flared-out delays adding a hectic sense of chaos as bright synth-horn bursts flash back and forth and Spencer’s vocals get pushed through all manner of digital contortion, while 2020 Soundsystem opt for a glacial electro-disco trajectory in a similar vein to Lindstrom, placing icy Italo-infused bass synth arpeggios beneath crisp house rhythms and dubbed-out bongos; considering it’s Ralph Lawson, it definitely comes off as one of his more distinctively chilled efforts.

Freaks disappoint slightly with their ‘Lastdaysofdiscoredo’, as it really doesn’t depart very much from the original track aside from adding the odd spooky electroclash descending synth line and intermittantly dropping the basslines out of the mix, but if this is the one slightly off note here, it’s certainly cancelled out by Josh Wink’s storming nine minute acid-infused reworking, which is easily my pick of the tracklisting here, with rolling tribal techno rhythms powering their way beneath epic-sounding ambient synth pads as burbling 303s lurk in the background, while Chicken Lips’ own re-rub under their alternate Zeefungk guise certainly offers a contrastingly harder electroclash edge that harks back to the Lips’ earlier work, even if it’s hardly the most compelling mix on offer here.

A strong remix package with some astute choices aboard – my advice is to head for the Juan Maclean and Wink mixes.