Factory Floor – Two Different Ways Remixes

It’s payback time for Perc as he shifts roles from label A&R to remixer – but can his work across three remixes match up to the Factory Floor remixes of Forward Strategy Group? It’s hard to answer, not least because the reworkings from Butler, Colk and Gurnsey of tracks from Labour Division were subtle and insidious, while Perc chooses a more upfront approach to repay the favour.

The only exception is the Noise version of “Two Different Ways,”, where Ali Wells intersperses the sound of trapdoors slamming shut and metal grates screeching with gulps of ambient noise. Blink and you’ll miss the tortured vocal snippets. It’s a diversion from the main event though, and on the Perc dub and second version, Wells pushes his foot to the floor and stretches his hands out to the stars. This dub take is rooted in heavy claps and a pulsing bass as slamming warehouse beats lead the arrangement to the inevitable climax. The Perc remix is even more of an anthem; the eerie vocal that simmered in the background on the dub remix is brought to the fore and ravey riffs are added to the breeze block groove for a hands in the air moment that feels like the antithesis of Factory Floor’s cool.

Apart from Perc’s repositioning, this release also marks the intriguing return of former Cabaret Voltaire and Sweet Exorcist man Richard H Kirk. The Sheffield producer’s take on ’Ways’ is more understated than Perc’s three versions, but it does have an irresistibly chugging groove and possibly in a nod to the period that marked his original rise to prominence, a choo-chooing train that sounds like the android equivalent of Telex’s “Moskow Disko”. Two different ways indeed.

Richard Brophy

Tracklisting:

1. Two Different Ways (Richard H Kirk Remix)
2. Two Different Ways (Perc Remix)
3. Two Different Ways (Perc Dub)
4. Two Different Ways (Perc Noisy Remix)