New Zealand’s finest returns to King Unique’s Curfew imprint

Magik Johnson’s last cross-genre mutant release on Curfew ‘Asylum Sneaker’ picked up fans from Adam Beyer to Claude von Stroke, Sasha to Jesse Rose and found it’s way onto Danny Tenaglia’s latest compilation. So we at Curfew are grinning from ear to ear as we introduce it’s twisted younger brother ‘Straight Face’, complete with two superb remixes to give you a package that we’ve had great pleasure road testing over the last few weeks.

Mr Johnson and fellow New Zealander Simon Flower turn in a pair of outstanding mixes – Magik’s NZ Tribal Dub is equal parts classic tribal and Rekids-style dub work-out with menacing over-blown horns wailing over a chunky filtered groove. Steady and grinding as a glacier, and equally irresistible.

On the flip Flower hits us with a cool, fat-as-fuck techno excursion that’s up there with the best of his releases on Kompakt and Railyard, mixing up micro-sampled glitch beats with dubbed out chords for a perfect balance of darkly dreamy and dramatically druggy. One for the heads.

Lastly the original mix of Straight Face walks the same genre-defying line as it’s elder brother, somewhere beyond the borders of techno and electro but equally at home in a set of either. Big room stuff with big hooks for big moments.

Supporters on the release include Nic Fanciulli, DJ Hell, John Digweed, Lee Burridge, Ivan Smagghe, & John Selway – full reactions below.

1. TRIBAL NZ DUB

2. SIMON FLOWER REMIX

3. ORIGINAL