[MR. INTL]

For the third release on his Mr. INTL imprint, Hercules & Love Affair’s Andy Butler recruits two more of his bandmates, vocalist Shaun J. Wright and Aérea Negrot, who features on remix duty. Forever More consists of two remixes and a clean version of the title track (the listener puzzles at where the dirty version is). Working solo, Wright’s material is a bit darker and more restrained than that of his band, though the purity of golden age house shines through here as well, albeit with some contemporary techiness.

Wright bears vocal, lyrical, and compositional similarities to Alan Abrahams of Portable/Bodycode and “Forever More” is redolent of Abrahams’ eccentric vocal house, with Wright’s baritone and blunt lyrics sitting front and center. Compared to much of Abrahams’ work, Wright seems slightly sinister at times: “If I have to convince you through the use of force/it doesn’t matter much to me.” Because of the vocal’s weight, the differences between the three mixes seem fairly slight. Wright leaves things spare on the clean version, spacing several persistent high tones throughout a slowly syncopated rhythm pattern. Aérea Negrot’s remix ups the tempo, steadily piling percussion atop a more prominent synth-and-bass line combination, the synth wavering hurriedly while the acidic bass is filtered up and down. The mastertape remix features an old-school Trax-style template, in particular the bass line, extending the clean version’s menacing vibe and remaining fairly linear until an anemic, high-pitched synth pattern sends things over the top. Facsimile or not, Wright’s effort is up there with Azari & III’s vocal cuts in terms of modern variations on the style.