Live Review: Ben Frost ‘No Sorrowing’ (Kangding Ray Remix)

Ben Frost’s AURORA album received almost universal critical acclaim, so he can be forgiven for enjoying a mini victory lap on the off-shoot EP, VARIANT.

Having put out one of last year's most progressive albums, here on the five track EP release Ben sits back and lets others do the work, or rather reworking. Kangding Ray lends his French Berliner powerhouse hands to ‘No Sorrowing’, creating a gripping and urgent remix of the original.

Frost's original material is dominant and experimental, so it might have been tricky for a less-experienced remixer to bring anything new to such a complex and abstract sound. However, Kangding Ray has been doing this for a few years now and puts his own stamp on Frost's enticingly nebulous sound, providing a much more structured and physical techno track compared to the ghostly original.

The ‘No Sorrowing’ remix is like entering a watery underworld, buoyed up by a beat that sounds like the hammering of a disused oil drum found on a Kreuzberg scrapheap. It’s less ethereal than the original, but instead we have the addition of velocity and industrial muscle. The introduction of the familiar 4x4 beat on Kangding Ray’s version brings the track down from the heady heights of Frost’s amorphous space to the more recognisable levels of us mere mortals’ dance-floors. The track is still powerful and intertwines a variety of sonic samples, fading off with an insect-like scratching.

Over 27 minutes long in total, the VARIANT EP also features three remixes of ‘Venter’ by Evian Christ, Dutch E Germ and HTRK, and a Regis Self Medicating remix of ‘Nolan’. It's released on vinyl this month, with digital copies already available.

Words by Katie Rowley

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