The latest release from the duo Years of Denial is one of those albums that practically sells itself. Suicide Disco 2 was, according to us, one of the best LPs of 2023, so the source material was already tremendous. But on top of that, this remex album includes some of the best artists in electronic music today, starting with the classic The Hacker and including two heavyweights such as Kris Baha and Phase Fatale. There is also a strong representation from VEYL Records, one of the labels with the most personality and taste in dark electronica. From the label we can find one its capos Maenad Veyl alongside Velvet May. In the digital version, there is Supreme Low, the project of Jerome Tcherneya himself, who released an EP in 2022 with a curious mix of darkwave and hip hop. Suicide Disco Vol. 2 Remixes was released in October last year and features six remixes, two more in the digital version: in addition to the aforementioned Supreme Low, the great Geistform does his magic to “Art Break”. As always, we will rewiew the vinyl version, which is the one we own.
Years of Denial had already remixed The Hacker in the past, in a superb remix that appeared on Barro 004. Now it’s the turn of the legendary French DJ to give his take on a track by the duo. Michel Amato is not dumb and chooses ‘Lover’s Crime’, one of the best compositions of the original album, and makes a hyper-bailable track of his own. Kris Baha is not wrong choosing ‘Wrong’ and does a remix in an EBM techno styles. Although he is now more focused on the music he makes as Ghost in the Machine, here he returns to the sound that we like most of him. The last track of the A-Side is the hardest, a ‘City Lights’ that is explosive dancefloor material. Its author, Phase Fatale, has surely already played it in some of his sessions at Berghain. Never (Stefano Santi’s project that released a cassette on VEYL three years ago) and Maenad Veyl do another take on ‘City Lights’ that could hardly be more different from Phase Fatale‘s. Here, they bring us a powerful remix in which they look for the sicker, more disturbing side of the track. Velvet May (who released a very recommendable album this year on VEYL) is in charge of the following remix, and he remakes the track following his industrial vision. My favourite of the lot. The flip side comes to an end with the great Codex Empire that brings the forcefulness and darkness that characterizes his work to ‘Regarding the Pain of Others’.
