Club Chemtrail | The Astral Plane

In recent years, the name of Armand Van Helden has been somewhat sullied as he flies the EDM banner higher and higher, but then again, the Boston-born garage pioneer never cared much for the cerebral side of things. Portland’s Club Chemtrail team, SPF666 and Commune, have the right idea with this remix package though, pointing to two of Van Helden’s seminal 90s hits and wrenching them out of their former glory. In a sense, both of the Portland-based producer’s efforts are reboots of Van Helden’s originals, maintaining most of the original, strutting intent, but filling each respective joint with an influx of attitude, whether it be derived from ballroom, bubbling, or the dembow-meets-techno of SPF666’s Scorpion Cache EP. Portland’s got it going on these days and the Chemtrail buds continue to lead the way.

Previewed in mixes for the past several months, Neana’s wildly creative “Val Venis Mix” of SPF666‘s “Scorpion Cache” has finally reached daylight. Part mashup, part interpolation, the prodigious London producer wraps King L‘s C-Sick produced “Val Venis” for a percussive ride, drawing its menacing melody out over a vexing kick drum pattern. Discharged of its youthful fury, C-Sick’s beat takes on a playful, 8-bit quality that allows Neana to flex his four-on-the-floor grime-meets-ballroom into a deadly club projectile. It’s the type of track that transcends its various influences and it embodies the reason why so many producers are attempting to replicate Neana’s production stylings. Its quality also represents why so few of those producers have managed to come anywhere near his prowess. Download the remix below and look out for the Scorpion Cache EP, out next month on Club Chemtrail.