Premiere: Pleasurekraft announces debut album with SAMA remix of ‘Interiors’

by: Will McCarthy Sep 4, 2017

Regardless of genre or generation, the process of orchestrating a full length studio album has always been a difficult, highly commendable feat. Yet, in the climate of today’s dance music industry, which dictates that artists must constantly tour and churn singles in order to remain relevant, the formidable task of composing an LP is a more admirable undertaking than at any prior point in the history of recorded music.

In the club-dominated techno space, albums are a particular rarity, but thankfully, this paradigm seems to be shifting: genre heavyweights Rødhåd, Tale Of Us, and Âme all have full length efforts on the way, while Maceo Plex battled the homogeneity of club culture in his recent sophomore LP, Solar.

Now, seven years after their rise to prominence, Pleasurekraft have become the latest artists of the ilk to tackle this career milestone. The onetime consuls of eerie, cerebral tech house, Kaveh Soroush and Kalle Ronngardh have spent the last several years transitioning their musical focus toward a compelling style that they describe as cosmic techno. Rather than a mere rebranding, Pleasurekraft’s transformation has been an organically inspired artistic shift, not unlike that of Picasso’s abandonment of traditional painting in favor of postmodern depictions.

It would seem that the transnational duo’s stylistic shift has been leading up to this moment. The album, which is due for a 2018, is dubbed Friends, Lovers, & Other Constellations; it’s reasonable to assume that Pleasurekraft’s astral inspirations will play an important thematic role in their forthcoming album, though it remains wholly unheard at the time of this writing.

Alongside the the announcement, Pleasurekraft have tapped SAMA, a recent favorite on their Kraftek imprint, to remix the record’s opening track, “Interiors.” Currently unreleased, the original track is rumored to mark yet a stylistic deviation for the duo, veering into the realm of emotive electronica, thereby removing any essence of formulaic predictability for the album to come.

Enlisting SAMA to introduce Friends, Lovers, & Other Constellations to the world is a sage move for the duo. The Dutch producer’s remix respects the emotive framework for “Interiors,” but aligns with the techno stylings that have become his commissioners’ norm. Deep, dark, and cinematic, his take on the track recalls Pleasurekraft’s Kubrickian “Maskara” at times, pairing dissonant melodic elements with foreboding atmospheres. Completing his instrumental work with brooding bass synths which evoke the style of Fur Coat and Shall Ocin, SAMA creates a sonic canvas that transforms the piece from wistfully evocative to deeply haunting.

The remix rounds out SAMA’s Existence EP, which will arrive on Kraftek this Friday, September 8. The forthcoming record also includes two originals from the artist, “Existence” and “Origin.”