Different Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Record Store Day Black Friday edition gifts us this unlikely pairing of artists as Different offers up some Pet Shop Boys remixes of Claptone's 'Queen of Ice.' The extended mix goes first with a nice pop-tinged and subtly Balearic rework with warming electronic drums and the original emotive vocals. Their Moody mix then breaks up the beast a little into tumbling affairs that are perfect for summer festival deployment. On the flip is the heart-wrenching dance pop nugget that is the original of 'Queen Of Ice' (feat Dizzy) before the best of the lot - a nice and breezy 7" mix that is clean and catchy.

Review: Following the success of her debut album Man Made this year, here's a reissue of London artist Aria Wells aka Greentea Peng's Rising EP from back in 2019 on Different. She worked with different producers on this one such as Fred Cox, Kiko, Samo and Earbuds who lent their various talents. Peng's soothing vocal delivery is accompanied perfectly by hypnotic polyrhythms on songs like 'Risin', the blunted urban blues of 'Inna City', and the broken beat neo-soul of 'Liberation' being just some highlights on this terrific EP.

Review: French electronic noise maker and live show hellraiser Vitalic is a towering figure on the European scene and has put out several seminal releases on his way there. OK Cowboy is one of them and it now gets reissued on limited edition white vinyl. The album originally dropped back in 2005 and was the Dijon artist debut long player. It set out his vision for techno, synth pop and electro and was a blueprint many copied in the years after, but non bettered. For high impact, energised beats and bright synth lines, few do it better than Vitalic.