Live Review: LISTEN: Disciples 'Catwalk' (Bot & Astronomar Remix)

Wait for the drop. Clattering upward through steamy industrial percussion loops and distorted vocal cuts, the first minute or so of MAIN COURSE legends BOT and ASTRONOMAR’s’ ‘Catwalk’ remix feels like it’s building toward something... because it is.

What that ‘something’ ends up being is the kind of liquid bass breakdown that hits you right in the gizzards, clean and yet stupidly filthy: like being showered in bootleg vodka, or bubble-bathing with a raving Mel Gibson (“do it for the passion”).

It’s an impulsive eargasm where action is the “reaction”: a fluttering bass-line that ought to shove the most pompous club-goers into bodily motion. It is, beyond dispute, the high point of the track. DISCIPLES’ original tune is a tad glitzier, channeling a late 80’s/early 90’s techno sound and a SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO style funk vibe. As foxy as its title, it’s made up of the kind of steady house loops you might actually expect to hear at a runway show.

This remix, on the other hand, is a 3am basement party—strobe lights and dry ice, wet shirts and dry-boning—driven on by that white-nostrilled, black-eyed bassline and strung out factory siren. The original was Dom Pérignon and sequin dresses; this is dirty sneakers and punctured eardrums.

BOT and ASTRONOMAR have torn down and rebuilt ‘Catwalk’ into a hissing, snapping piece of electro-industrial house. The beat chugs on even after the feature bassline has run out of steam, through a drum loop that sounds like Adam West backhanding his way out of the club, until all that’s left is the sharp chopping of the high-hats. Ideally enough, they’re the same high-hats that kick the track off—making for a tidy little bookend, and reason enough to hit repeat and take the ride again.

Wait for the drop.

Words by Gavin Butler

LISTEN TO MORE NEW MUSIC HERE

SEE ALSO:

ASTRONOMAR & SWICK ‘HORSE CODE’ EP

SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO & BICEP ‘SACRIFICE’