As expected Stefan Kozalla’s imprint Pampa is gaining a solid reputation in the cross-border electronic dance scene. Their fourth release ‘Holy Love’ by Axel Boman gained a solid rating of 4 from Resident Adviser and raises the stakes for the label to deliver another belter of a record. Luckily it’s been left to the hands of Border Community knob meddler Nathan Fake and like-minded genius producer DJ Koze to deliver Pampa’s fifth release, and this time it’s Christmas themed!
On the A side Nathan Fake delivers his take of a traditional Christmas song entitled ‘Xmas Rush’. No doubt Nathan will be sitting around the table with his loved ones this Christmas day pulling crackers and banging this out of the wireless whilst serving up the turkey. ‘Xmas Rush’ is without doubt one of my favorite productions from Fake, in the middle you think he’s completely lost the plot! He’s actually completely fucking with you by introducing distorted sounds more akin to a broken Space Invaders arcade machine than music. You think all’s gone to pot, but Fake makes melody of this noise and gradually reintroduces the beat in effortlessly and in perfect harmony. It’s hardheartedly a larger-than-life psychedelic Christmas bomb ready to go off! Not a bad effort at all Mr Fake.
Koze’s contribution couldn’t be further away from a traditional Christmas song. Instead he aims for Jamaica and offers a reinterpretation of Jamaica’s dub poet Michael Smith’s “Mi Cyaan Believe It” who was tragically beaten to death by political opponents in Jamaica in 1983. Smith’s original version was beatless, it’s a recording of his voice recalling the ruthlessness, rawness and revolutionary energy of the times, much like Public Enemy. Koze places Smith’s words meticulously on top of a swelteringly deep driving beat. The beat pretty much stays the same throughout the song but as expected in classic Koze style he plays around with the sounds, winding and twisting it up, making it weirder and weirder offering a very danceable tune.
Pampa’s fifth release features two completely different artists that illustrate Pampa’s ethos perfectly. This is most definitely a record you need in your life and is a perfect stocking filler. Ho ho ho!