Black Strobe – Innerstrings

The rarer 7" edition of Innerstrings is entirely remade by Mike Silver, each mix using a different alias of his. The Sonovac mix takes the already great No Shuffle Mix from the CD/12" and adds their unimitable style. All the lyrics are resung, and some more added on a similar theme. The tune itself is a glitchier, darker rendition featuring some unusual effects to spice it up.

Unfortunately, the B-side by Soft Verge lets down the single a bit, being very featureless and bland. Basically, there's a low 'wub' sound every few seconds, and eventually some squeaky noises. Pretty boring listening, although the style must have its fans I don't number among them.

Another good Black Strobe single, although not quite up to the quality of their original productions. The Sonovac mix and the rarity value are worth the price in my opinion, but the Soft Verge is for dedicated fans only.

The original Innerstrings is a rather housey tune, with a string-based melody (amazingly enough). It's very pure tune-wise, with just the sweeping strings and some mild electronics. To be honest, it's slightly bland, but the main riff is <I>very</I> catchy, which redeems the track a lot.

The No Shuffle Mix on the other hand is Smagghe's electro vision of Innerstrings, with a much more synth-based construction. This mix is where the track really begins to shine. The mix of soft instruments & harsh electronics gel together very well, there's only a few places where the rougher new tune conflicts with the older one. Also, slightly nonsensical lyrics are added, as is almost a Black Strobe trademark now, which sound to be Smagghe himself instead of Rebotini as normal.

Rebotini's The First, The Last And Everything Mix of the No Shuffle Mix takes the electro vibe and moves it back towards his own area of orchestral house, with softer synths but heavier beats. It almost could be classed as glitchpop in places due to the enormous amount of melodies going on, and doesn't come over as smooth as the other two versions.

All 3 variations of Innerstrings are in the end all very good tracks with a tune I can't stop humming, but each version has a slight letdown, meaning all are good but none are perfect. Still, a highly recommended buy, although this CD seems to be the only format still in production.