Franzis-D - I Need Love EP [Insomniafm Records]

[Giuli]

Franzis-D - I Need Love EP

"I Need Love" EP is rudimentary party music with a tech house bent. In that context, the Franzis-D does exactly what he should. Frustratingly, it's little more than that. The title track gets underway quickly, loading up with maximal percussion to establish a parched rhythm. Some vaguely Green Velvet vocals pin down the mid-section, lamenting a failed relationship with a hint of irony. From here, it's mostly a subtraction and addition game, with predictable bass drops and curt drum fills.

Boral Kibil remix is a touch heavier on the lows. Again though, it's laid out around dry percussive work, nice vibes and bass manipulation.
This time the sound act more like crowd noise; a persistent murmuring which does little more than irritate with its lack of purpose. Erdi Irmak version is only a distant relation: his finger-knocking-on-a-door beats and percussion are soft-edged yet purposeful, and come coated in a thick underwater murkiness.

In Hector Sawiak remix is as much space as there is sound; space which crackles with tape hiss and static, while the warm timber framework around it marks out myriad little rhythmic nooks and crannies. It's tight and involved, all pent up as if set to explode. But it doesn't. Instead there's an eventual slow release of energy thanks to the firefly-like chords that dart about from the midpoint, adding subtle but necessary colour to what is otherwise a sepia canvas.

Ejective remix have things shuffles aplenty, forever juggling myriad grooves as some expansive synths bleed out along a wider longitudinal plane. It sounds like the EP in a hurry, and quite possibly usurps the original as this release's real gem. Stanisha remix ducks and dives just as much, but never strays too far from a bobbling bassline, replaces the late-afternoon loucheness of loops with a more streamlined and dance floor sensibility.

Listen: here

Tracklist:
I Need Love (Original Mix)
I Need Love (Boral Kibil Remix)
I Need Love (Ejective Remix)
I Need Love (Erdi Irmak Remix)
I Need Love (Hector Sawiak Remix)
I Need Love (Stanisha Remix)

Label: Insomniafm Records
Cat: IFMR033
Release: November 12th 2011
Style: Tech House