[Morphine Records]

There are effectively six artists collaborating on the first “redose” of Morphine, a two-tracker that sees Donato Dozzy rework Ra.H and Dynamo Dreesen’s “Spacepops” from the great Morphine doser 009 and Hieroglyphic Being’s take on “Freak Inspector” (featuring Sensational) from Madteo’s label debut, Memoria. It’s a tantalizing prospect, letting these two distinctive voices rework material from the back catalogue of one of techno’s most idiosyncratic labels, and probably comes as no surprise that the results are so good. Donato Dozzy approaches “Spacepops” with the intention of preserving most the original’s constituent parts. The tempo, a sluggish, hypnotic plod, isn’t changed, and neither are most of the percussive elements, nor Dynamo Dreesen’s mumblings about “spacepops”. But in true Dozzy fashion, he stretches it out a bit, removing the original’s noisier parts to arrive at the track’s fundamental core. A low, pulsating bass line is added, gradually ebbing and flowing in and out of focus, much as the track does itself over its length.

Where Dozzy tries to extract the essence of “Spacepops,” Hieroglyphic Being takes “Freak Inspector” somewhere else entirely. Gone are Sensational’s rhymes (though perhaps they appear mangled somewhere in here) and Madteo’s spacious production, replaced by the myriad twisting, frenetic elements that so typically occupy Mathematics records. Jabbing acid lines, noisy synth gurgles, and lumbering percussion all feature, though despite those adjectives, Hieroglyphic Being’s “Freak Inspector” remix does feel more restrained than his original material tends to be. It works in his favor, and pairs nicely with the A-side to faithfully capture the spirit of Morphine’s run thus far. Neither remix does things by the book, and both are unmistakably the work of their creators, just begging to be played on some of the weirder dance floors out there.