Pitchfork
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Back before he began releasing his own singles and remixing others as Young Marco, Amsterdam’s Marco Sterk was gainfully employed by Rush Hour, the city’s vital record store/ dance music distribution hub/reissue imprint. Perhaps it stems from his handling of the label’s archival overviews—of such unheralded electronic music producers ranging from Anthony "Shake" Shakir to the Burrell Brothers to Daniel Wang—but Young Marco has absorbed their sense of craft. It’s understated yet undeniable, and in a few short years he’s racked up a good deal of remix work.
Ten of these remixes are compiled as Sorry for the Late Reply, its title no doubt a nod to the hectic touring schedules of most in-demand DJs/ producers (when I spoke to him last year, Sterk had recorded in Bali, toured the West Coast with Jamie xx, and was about to do more club dates in Europe). No doubt some of these remixes were done on the fly, but each submission sounds as if Marco missed its deadline to finesse a small detail and make each track land just right.
The remix that kicks off the set is the one that’s traveled the furthest, Michael Ozone’s "Hetrotopia," thanks to its inclusion on a Boomkat comp, a Ben UFO mix, and on John Talabot’s DJ-Kicks. Marco takes the queasy, anxious arpeggio of the original and shoots it through with sunlight and a sense of ease. The beat sways between bubbling acid and a touch of hand drum, shot through with echoing jungle cries and a voice sneering: "Freaks come out at night." The cheap Casio underpinning Heatsick gets paired with a swinging drum and hi-hat figure on "Dream Tennis," giving the stiffness of the original a bit more bend.
For most of the set, Young Marco prefers subtle builds, simmering drum programming, and playful recasts of his source material, with only a stomping track like Causa’s "Alji" serving as a peak-hour track. Otherwise, Late Reply will get the most work for building up sets or else easing things down at the end of the night (the shimmering downtempo take on Tony G’s "Simple Dreams" is an album stand-out). If "tropical house" weren’t already a cringeworthy subgenre, I might try to use it to describe Marco’s ability to add lilting island rhythmic patterns to house’s grid.
Regardless, it’s when he’s working with decidedly non-electronic material that Marco’s eclectic handiwork shines. Take two curious remixes, of mop-topped Dutchman troubadour Jacco Gardner and of Cameroonian musician/author Francis Bebey. Gardner’s wistful "The End of August" shades into Hot Chip/Kindness territory in Marco’s hands. It gets a rhythmic nudge in the form of a wispy conga pattern and hissing drum machine, Gardner’s gentle voice garlanded by blips that swoop down like swallows. Marco doesn’t bear down too hard on the track, but keeps it light on its feet. For Bebey’s quaint and charming "The Coffee Cola Song," Marco takes a brief pip of Francis Bebey’s nose flute and makes it into something as effervescent as the title suggests, the drums and pads underneath hiccupping about the track. The tracks throughout are sterling but don’t sound fussy, and for the range of artists represented, Marco’s sensibilities shine throughout, making for that rare remix album that actually hangs together as an end-to-end listen.
Fri May 27 00:00:00 GMT 2016