1. Shining Bright Star (Oliver Huntemann remix) 7.10
2. Shining Bright Star (Oliver Huntemann instrumental) 6.21
3. Shining Bright Star (Black Strobe remix) 9.53
4. Shining Bright Star (radio edit) 4.47

Parisian electro-house duo Black Strobe (aka Arnaud Rebotini and Ivan Smagghe) have certainly been turning up the suspense levels since their rise to prominence back in 2001-02 on the back of breakout 12”s for Trevor Jackson’s Output label such as ‘Me and Madonna’ and ‘Innerstrings.’ In the intervening years, the duo have been busy remixing everyone from Rammstein to Fischerspooner, contributing to Time Out’s city-centric ‘Other Side’ CD / DVD mix series and in short, doing everything except completing their long anticipated and oft-promised debut artist album. If you’ve been biting your nails during the interim, this first single to be lifted from Black Strobe’s upcoming ‘Burn Your Own Church’ album ought to thrill you (though in truth, ‘Shining Bright Star’ has already made an appearance, albeit in Paul ‘Phones’ Epworth-remixed form on last year’s ‘Remix Selection’ compilation).

In its original radio edited incarnation, ‘Shining Bright Star’ certainly fits with the more rock-centred direction Black Strobe have taken lately, and like predecessors ‘Chemical Sweet Girl’ and ‘Deceive / Play’, Rebotini takes centre stage, delivering a booming baritone Goth / New wave vocal (“Oooh, baby…I wanna be your shining bright star”) that may verge on comical for some over a moody backing of angular analogue bass synths, electro rhythms and jagged New Order-esque guitars – the post-punk / New Beat influences catalogued on their recent ‘Other Side – Paris’ lurching firmly to the forefront. For their own epic ten-minute long reworking, Black Strobe tailor things closer towards big-room electro-house, retaining the vocal and stripping back the clunkier New Wave rock elements in favour of buzzing bass pads, lithe house snares and arpeggiated synth patterns that border on trance at points, and while it’s certainly effective dancefloor fuel, it comes across as slightly too obvious and lacking the distinctively subtle dark sheen fans of the ‘Strobe are now used to. Oliver Huntemann meanwhile offers up what’s for my money the most spectacular remix here with his moody tech-house reworking, which marries percolating Moroder-esque analogue bass synths with dubbed-out effects, seriously digitally-tweaked vocals and dark buzzing electronics to create a fantastic slice of robotic atmosphere that easily beats Rebotini and Smagghe at their own game.

Expect interesting things afoot on Black Strobe’s apparently ‘rocky’ ‘Burn Your Own Church’ album this coming June.