BnB Review: Eleven Years Cocoon Recordings - Selected Remix Works
Written by Youri Jozee
House/Techno -
Sven Väth’s Cocoon label celebrates 11 years of dropping hotness with a compilation featuring nine re-interpretations of label classics…
In its 11 years of business, the Cocoon imprint have released countless ass-kicking house and techno grooves from artists such as Extrawelt, Oliver Koletzki, Dinky and Anthony Rother amongst many, many others. This compilation serves up nine tracks from the past six years in typical Cocoon fashion: swampy house grooves and techy shakedowns with a bite from some of the label’s finest artists.
Things kick off with one of Cocoon’s biggest hits till date: Dinky’s playful Acid In My Fridge, which gets the remix treatment from Visionquest (Lee Curtiss, Ryan Crosson, Seth Troxler and Shaun Reeves). The result is a more abstract and much darker version full of 303-bass, reverb fx and vocal snippets. After this, the compilation continues serving up a batch of both stripped as heavier cuts. Tim Green’s mix of Argy’s Unreliable Virgin is a strong rework with great melodic textures, while Steve Rachmad injects Joel Mull’s Harmonautic String –s pretty heavy tune in its own right- with subtle Detroit fluids. However, the biggest surprises are found in the second half, with Gary Beck turning Pig & Dan’s Deliverance into a monster floorfiller full of Beck’s signature reverb synths and fx, while Kollektiv Turmstrasse deliver an outstanding synth-riddled remix of Extrawelt’s Titelheld.
The retail version comes with an additional 80-minute bonus mix by Cocoon's Patrick Kunkel. Nice.
Our verdict: Overall speaking, this release is more or less what you would expect from Cocoon: house and more techy stuff with a twist, which is basically the sound the label has been transmitting for the past few years. However, remixing a track without completely ruining its original vibe is hard enough as it is, and in that sense, it must be said that the majority of this compilation’s content is far above average. All in all, this one is simply another very decent Cocoon compilation.
House/Techno - 
