Sharp new EP from Emika, further dissolving the boundaries between pop and the bleeding edge of dub-savvy Berlin electronics. 'Chemical Fever' (Re-Edit) is a case in point: vocals chorussed into abstraction over a dense bed of arctic ambience a la Porter Ricks and precision-tooled, colour-drained dubstep percussion. It has to be one of Emika's finest recordings to date, doesn't really sound like anything else out there. Substance - aka Peter 'DJ Pete' Kuschnereit of Scion and Chain Reaction fame takes the original to its logical conclusion, dubbing the vocal layers down to pure texture, steeping the whole in reverb but still - and herein lies his genius - keeping things tight and rhythmic enough for the 'floor. Proper Teutonic dub science. In the original 'Chemical Fever' the claustrophobic tribal vibes are emphasised, resulting in something that sounds like the bad-trip offspring of Skull Disco and Third-era Portishead; 'Save It' is more like the Emika of old, her sultry, dissolute vocals occupying the space between spindly steppers' drums, electronic pops and what sound like funereal horns, before Tommy Four Seven drops in for an industrial-hued, heavy-gated remix of 'The Long Goodbye' with shades of Sandwell District and, curiously, early DMZ.
