- Before going on stage, Giorgia Angiuli and Piero Fragola are friendly and unassuming. Then they emerge from the dressing room as We Love. Clad in matching black-and-white spacesuits, the two pilot an array of synths and a barrage of light show antics, embellishing their brand of minimal techno with the playful pageantry of a sci-fi convention. It's a reminder that the genre doesn't have to be as cold and humorless as one might think.
We Love's latest offering pairs two standout tunes from their self-titled LP with remixes that take advantage of the openness in We Love's sound. Transformation is emphasized here, with each side featuring remix first and original in its wake. On his version of "Underwater" Johnny D forsakes the deep house he's developed for labels like Oslo for a bit of dark, driving techno, a floor-ready number that only underscores the murky and hypnotic atmosphere of the original. He's gone and lifted the Italians out of their neon submarine, killing the juice on their sonar synths, thrusting them on dry land.
Ellen Allien is even more unsparing. The original version of "Hide Me," an eyeless and moody shadow-dweller, like one of those angler fish you see in ocean documentaries, becomes in Allien's hands a different creature altogether. Gone are Giorgia's shelter-seeking pleas and a goth-kid yearning for darkness—in their stead Allien musters a revved-up house number replete with big hi-hats and broad piano stabs. It feels as if she's throwing a strobe light on the lightless cave where Giorgia and Piero have tried to sequester themselves, while calling out to them: "You can dance, but you can't hide."
Tracklist A1 Underwater (Johnny D Remix)
A2 Underwater
B1 Hide Me (Ellen Allien Remix)
B2 Hide Me