- On his second Head High mix, Shed explores his softer side.
- The first volume of René Pawlowitz's Home.House.Hardcore landed back in 2015. It was an all-originals mixtape that suited him perfectly, curating his brashest techno tracks into a coherent record that worked as well on the car stereo as a Funktion-One. The second entry in the series turns away from techno to wade through Pawlowitz's extensive house back catalog as he mixes 15 original tracks—including five new ones—to show a different end of his sound that emphasizes his softer side.
The mix is built around tracks from his overlooked Zigg Gonzalezz project (overlooked at least in part because of the strange spellings he uses from release to release). This alias traces its roots back a decade, to a 12-inch where Pawlowitz briefly went Balearic. It's since become a place for his gentler sounds. Gentle in some ways, anyway—this mix isn't downtempo by any stretch of the imagination. The focus just isn't on his Richter scale-rattling drums. The opener doesn't even have a kick, recalling the interludes on his LPs, rather than his 12-inch work. Even when he pulls from his well-known aliases, like WK7 or Head High, he opts for mellower hues. "Higher The Break," a 2019 Head High release, is built around a stuttered break, diva wails and rave chords washed out with reverb, like listening to a '90s rave classic from inside a seashell.
The cuddlier cuts are worth the price of admission alone, but it's the exclusives that make the mix a blockbuster. His collaboration with Virginia may not be "Yours," but it isn't far off. The duo play with classic Shed-isms, replacing the pounding percussion with pattering hand drums. On "Changes," with Cassy, he hits notes of New York deep house and synthwave. But the real showstopper is "Pleasure (DS)." Pawlowitz has played around with just about every genre under the sun, but he finally blacks out his dance music bingo card with a bit of hip-house thanks to some horizontal drums, a "drop it" vocal sample and rubbery bass wobbles.
Beyond the actual tracks themselves, the mix is constructed with expertise. Pawlowitz doesn't flex any DJ tricks, keeping it simple with rough-and-ready mixing that moves from one track to the next with a clear sense of purpose. After taking it low-and-slow at the start, things loosen up in the middle section as he flirts with gospel house (check those organ keys in "Sunday (3PM)"), before ending with the heavy-hearted suite of two WK7 anthems, "Rhythm 1" and "Rhythm 2 (Triple H Remix)."
In 2008, hot off the heels of his debut LP, Shedding The Past—and as minimal was giving way to the dominance of Berghain techno—Resident Advisor caught up with Pawlowitz as he finished a shift at Hardwax. He wanted to spend the interview chatting about proto-house and classic Chicago tracks as much as he wanted to talk about techno. In the decade-and-a-half since, Pawlowitz has released plenty of house, and this mix feels like the culmination of all that work. For a producer famous for his big and bold sounds and colors, it's refreshing to hear his tracks that focus subtleness and sincerity. This isn't Pawlowitz's emo record by a long stretch, but it does point to the depths of emotion hidden between his kick drums.
Tracklist01. Zigg Gonzalezz - The Kind (Original Mix)
02. Head High - Higher The Break
03. WK7 - Washer (Dirt Dirt Dirt)
04. Head High + Cassy - Changes
05. Zigg Gonzalezz - High Jackin'
06. Zigg Gonsalezz - Sunday (3pm)
07. Head High - Pleasures (DS Mix)
08. Ziggg Gonssalezz - Island 909
09. Head High - What You Want
10. WK7 - Wait
11. Head High + Virginia - Blind
12. Head High + WAX - Pile #00505
13. WK7 - Rhythm 1
14. WK7 - Rhythm 2 (Triple H Mix)