French producer William Reze, AKA Thylacine, seems to like trains. Like, a lot. Like, more than the bloke you see darting around in the bushes outside the overground station on your way home from work in the evening. The bloke with the binoculars and the slightly grubby look in his eye. His newest LP, Transsiberian, was inspired by the Trans-Siberian Railway. Which you could probably have guessed from the title. "A journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway would finally provide me with the ideal conditions for writing music," he says. "The cramped confinement of my cabin, the travel length (as long as 160 hours), the fact that I could use my electronic equipment, the discovery of another culture and a new type of music, nearly 6,000 miles of landscape as well as the opportunity of meeting new people."One new person he's met along the way is Komapkt boss Michael Mayer. If you've ever seen Michael Mayer play out, or have listened to legendary mixes like Immer or Fabric 13, you'll know that he's a master of pacing, a slow-building sonic architect happy to eke out subtle blends for minutes at a time, resulting in a DJing style that's luxurious and languid. Think of it as the DJing equivalent of spreading some really expensive cream cheese really, really slowly on some really expensive sourdough. Makes sense right?With that in mind, it's no surprise that this Mayer-hewn remix is a lengthy affair, but every second of its eight and a half minutes is a delight. When was the last time you heard a STEAM TRAIN roll into an atmospherically churning techno record? Imagine hearing that in a club! There you are, you and the gang, beer bottles aloft, loving life, dancing the night away and then BLAM! "WHAT'S THAT NOISE," you all scream in unison. "That, my friends," I say, "is the Michael Mayer remix of "Train" by Thylacine and it's premiering on THUMP right now, so check it out below."
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Transsiberian by Thylacine is out on Intuitive Records on 27th May 2016Josh is on Twitter