- Low Motion Disco 's sonic concoctions are about as laid-back as you can get without falling over; they've said they invented a way to dance without moving, and that their record is the proper accompaniment to such groovy stasis. On "The Low Murderer Is Out at Night" they're clearly going for the kind of opiate-infused nadir that Quiet Village mined so exquisitely on Silent Movie: the kind of washed-out waking coma you meet while laying face-down in the sand at seven in the morning following a night of sustained revelry, listening to the gentle rush of the surf and delighting in the dull, curious absence of your brain.
The track is powered by a lazy, feel-good acoustic guitar stomp, a kind of trip-hop soft-rock, Seals & Croft with VST plug-ins. While its airy summer-breeze narcosis makes it a seemingly prime grill-party jam, its sluggish groove and tailor-cut instrumentation makes it feel less like it wafted down from out of the summery haze and more like it was cooked up for a light beer commercial. It's that element of over-calculation, evident here as on the rest of the Low Motion full-length, that begins to tip the scales that so precariously balance kitschy vinyl-lover grooves on the one hand and Best of Chill-Out Volume 8 compilations on the other.
The An-2 remix doesn't manage to keep the scale in place. With its calculated laser-boogie and uninspired arrangements, it seems quite happy to erase the original's shred of good taste in order to grant "Low Murderer" preferred status in Purgatory's infinite tacky chill-out room. It's pretty routine space disco, and it says something about the current renewed interest in the likes of Moroder and Cerrone that we've reached the paint-by-numbers approach. Mark E's remix fares far better here, adhering to his characteristic steady pressure-cooker approach, but the slightly damp quality of the original prevents him from building his usual full head of slow-disco steam. While Mark gets all his rubber-band loops spinning in a whirlwind—the acoustic guitars whipped up into a kind of dubby, churning siren song—his remix, like the original, never feels like much more than the sum of its parts.
Tracklist A The Low Murderer Is Out At Night (Mark E Remix)
B1 The Low Murderer Is Out At Night (AN-2 Remix)
B2 The Low Murderer Is Out At Night (Original)