Mike Shannon - Under the Radar

Artist: Mike Shannon

Title: Under the Radar

Label: Cynosure

Catalog #: CYN040

Release Date: January 25, 2010

Rating: 6

I wish my keyboard had a “Ricardo Villalobos” button. You’d turn it on like caps lock, and it would take any audio, detune it, extract five interesting milliseconds, make new sentences out of combinations of old lines, and spit out a good song. Villalobos is just one man, and he can’t remix everything I decide has potential. Berlin, work on this.

In the meantime, we can only be thankful that he decided to put his grubby mitts all over Mike Shannon’s Under the Radar, a drummy thing that begs to be remixed. The original diva track is excellent, with the vocals substantial and upfront and nuanced enough to arouse other DJs’ imaginations. After Villalobos follows the original, Deadbeat drops the other highlight with a migraine impression that’s nevertheless more disciplined than most audiences.

By the end of the EP, I’ll miss these tracks. I guess I understand Massimo Di Lena’s two contributions, which went to the Moodymann school of deep house ambient sound design, but the Rozzo edit sounds exactly like a zillion other diva remixes and Wasted Chicago Youth’s horn-drenched, scatterbrained non-song might as well owe royalties to Fergie’s “London Bridge.” I don’t want buttons for these people.

After Villalobos transforms the original so drastically, it’s disappointing to hear the EP sequenced the way that it is, but three (or five, if you’re a housemonger) of the seven tracks are absolutely worthwhile listens, and the others might be worth keeping around in case they sound good when the Villalobos key gets invented.

-Travis Korte

Tracks:

1) Under the Radar - Mike Shannon's Original Mix

2) Under the Radar - Ricardo Villalobos Mix

3) Under the Radar - Deadbeat Mix

4) Under the Radar - Rozzo Mix

-Digital Only

5) Under the Radar - Massimo Di Lena's Loon Mix

6) Under the Radar - Massi's NYC Deep Dub Mix

7) Under the Radar - Wasted Chicago Youth's Dub Mix