Fire Works

Fire Works remixes some of the tracks from Sven Vath's Fire album, oddly ignoring "Je T'aime...Moi Non Plus" which features the increasingly popular Miss Kitten. Missed opportunity aside, it is a serviceable collection of straight-ahead German techno. A few tracks show up in multiple remixes but the mixes are distinctive enough to not be redundant. Si Begg's version of "Design Music" is exceptional with its rumbling bass and starts and stops. Other highlights include Davide Squillace's remix of "Heisse Scheibe," which combines a creepy creaking noise with a Basic Channel-style background, and John Starlight's swing at "Ghost" bleeps along with a good bass shuffle. The majority of the remixes focus on the dancefloor, but the final two tracks are prime living-room listening. Ricardo Villalobos' "Cala Llonga" is 11 minutes of glitch with a beat, and the Lo Soul remix of "Heisse Scheibe" strips away most of the track, turning into a dubby head-nodder. Perhaps the absence of a remix from Kitten or Anthony Rother (who also appeared on the original Fire) shows that Vath wants to connect with his core audience hungry for right-up-the-middle techno. Fire Works delivers and works in a welcome challenge at the end.