- The San Francisco label Dark Entries has released over 100 records in the past few years, most of them reissues of synth music from the '80s. Given the sheer volume of their output, it would be easy to miss the special attention they gave to one artist: Lena Platonos, a Greek avant-garde musician influential in her time but under-appreciated today (in other words, exactly the kind of figure that makes reissues worthwhile). Since 2015, Dark Entries reissued two of Platonos's albums, Gallop and Sun Masks (listed in the original Greek as Γκάλοπ and Μάσκες Ηλίου), followed by a bundle of remixes by the Israeli duo Red Axes. This month, they put out another remix EP, this time with four artists reworking music from Sun Masks.
Sun Masks is an album full of evocative tension, a daydreamy blend of poetry and electronic composition that's as colorful as it is haunting. Each remix captures a different part of this mood. Kim Ann Foxman makes a dusky synth pop cut out of "Hoping By Shopping." Borusiade, a Romanian artist with music on labels like Cititrax and Jennifer Cardini's Correspondant, smudges "Wrong Love" into a hazy darkwave ballad.
Avalon Emerson and Lena Willikens both remix what for me is easily Sun Masks' best song, "Lego." Willikens remoulds it into a lean and psychedelic groover, precisely the kind of thing she makes and plays so well. Emerson's remix is in the style of her Cybernedits, letting the original play out more or less unchanged over a rumbling techno beat. The result is exceptional, a strange and euphoric banger that's up there with "The Frontier." Beyond presenting a bundle of wonderfully offbeat summer club tracks, Sun Masks Remixes highlights the link between the old music Dark Entries reissues and the new music it inspires.
TracklistA1 Lego (Avalon Emerson Version)
A2 Lego (Lena Willikens Remix)
B1 Hoping By Shopping (Kim Ann Foxman Remix)
B2 Wrong Love(Borusiade Remix)