Link to our Facebook
Link to our Instagram
Link to our TikTok

Live Review: LUCIANBLOMKAMP 'Post-Nature Remixes' EP

3 April 2015 | 9:00 am | Tom Hutchins

How do you build on the brilliance of LUCIANBLOMKAMP's album, without making things messy or over-cooked? You get PLANÈTE and RAT & CO to remix it.

This is the kind of thing that makes me happy. Three of Melbourne's finest artists coming together out of love for one's music - and creating some masterful re-imaginings in the process.

LUCIANBLOMKAMP may still be flying under the radar in some circles, but if you've seen the process he's made that I have, then you'd agree when I say that he's one of the most talented dudes in the country right now. Considering that in 2012 he was just another teenager releasing covers on YouTube - the fact that his debut album, Post-Nature, was so unbelievably complex and immersive, illustrates how quick Lucian's mind works.

So how do you build on the brilliance of the album, without making things messy or over-cooked? You get PLANÈTE and RAT & CO to remix your tracks. The Post-Nature Remixes package may only be two tracks long, but they're packed with whimsical bliss.

Plug into the latest music with our FREE weekly newsletter

Planète steps up first, he's taken on 'Saudade'. Now, if you know 'Saudade' - you'd know is the extremely emotive and minimal closer to the album - almost solely focussed on Lucian's classically trained violin. Planète doesn't care that the beat is quite simple, and he doesn't care that it's certainly not a dance track. He went and whipped up a TEN minute house track out of it anyway - coz, that's what he does. That's why I love him.

The track starts with a driving bass, this throbs through the track and steps the tempo up. He then takes the soft keys and samples from the original and sits them back in the mix. The synths pitch up and Planète smashes them into broken and confusing percussion - it's heavy. The soothing elements of the original take new form, as 'Saudade' is re-born as a dark, yet melancholy deep house jam.

Rat & Co on the other hand take on the lead single, 'Help Me Out'. They're not new to the remix game, and they turn the track from a twisted dark pop tune - to Jazz-y soul tune. The sax that churns your inside on the original is chopped up and brings the Jazz element, whilst complex organ and synth lines are accompanied by hip-hop backbeat. It too is melancholic, and shows a different side of Lucian's arrangements. Until the climactic breakdown of course.

LUCIANBLOMKAMP will be performing at The Operatives Espionage Party in Melbourne on Sunday - win some tickets.

Words by Tom Hutchins

Photo Credit: Savannah Van der Niet

SEE ALSO