Answering Machine

VINYL FORMAT. From the very outset, the M.C.D.E. remix of Shit Robot's "Answering Machine" picks up in a completely different realm from Marcus Lambkin's original, which appears on his 2010 debut, From the Cradle to the Rave. The Stuttgart-based producer has replaced Janine "Planningtorock" Rostron's slowly rising vocal opener with outerspace emanations that fade as they drift into a constellation of wide house grooves and deep bass. Rostron's own Pizzo remix is up next, and in (a)typical fashion, she takes the song and shifts its mood by clearing away the dancier elements of its predecessor in favor of a foundation of strings in every form: plucked pizzicato notes, low cellos tones, and high pitched violins that flit through. Last up is another Rostron creation, the "Whisper" remix, which actually outpaces Lambkin's version in bpm, but is lighter all the same. Here, she uses synths almost as a wash of white noise – a whisper, if you will – and only drops heavier vocals here and there along the song's rustling path.