1. I’m A Man (Audion’s Audio Donation remix) (11.57)
2. I’m A Man (Black Strobe remix) (7.23)
3. I’m A Man (radio edit) (3.40)
4. Pins And Needles (6.14)

‘I’m A Man’ was easily one of the most immediately arresting tracks packed amongst Black Strobe’s just-released tearing debut album ‘Burn Your Own Church’, and one practically begging for the single treatment. This second 12” to be lifted from that aforementioned record sees Arnaud Rebotini’s turbocharged reinterpretation of the Bo Diddley blues standard presented in its original album form alongside excellent reworkings from both current remixer du jour Matthew ‘Audion’ Dear (fresh from his remix of the Chemical Brothers’ ‘Do It Again’) and Rebotini himself, as well as a previously unreleased non-album track ‘Pins And Needles’

While in its original radio edited form the distinctly rockist ‘I’m A Man’ comes across as something akin to Yello’s Dieter Meier fronting the snarling offspring of NIN and Bauhaus, Audion’s epic 12 minute long ‘Audio Donation’ remix predictably emerges as the real star here. In many senses following a similar trajectory to his recent Chems remix, it spends its first half in territory more akin to Dear’s output under his given name, threading Rebotini’s basso vocals through a delicate backdrop of pulsing minimal techno kickdrums and shimmering electro elements, before the bleeping urgent synth sequences gradually emerging below the rhythms slowly and relentlessly take over the entire mix, the second section wandering down into a dark chaotic web of machine-like buzzes and pinprick snares that’s sure to be instantly familiar to anyone who picked up Audion’s devastating ‘Mouth To Mouth 12”.

By contrast, Rebotini strips away the thundering overdriven guitar fuzz of the original version on his own reworking, in favour of elastic bass synths and glittering handclaps that take things out on a growling electro-skank tip that delightfully, manages to keep in the finger-picking banjo bits of the original – indeed, it’s a more than capable substitute for DJs more averse to outre rock theatrics. Previously unreleased B-side ‘Pins And Needles’ meanwhile manages to evoke the Black Strobe of old, taking things off on a searing electro-goth meets Italo rave excursion that’s perhaps more blistering than any of the tracks that made it onto ‘Burn Your Own Church.’ Highly recommended.