Artist: Pole Folder
Title: The Way
Label: La Tour Recordings
By: Simon Jones | 29 January 2009
Tracklist:

• A: Original Mix
• B: Spooky Mix

Pole Folder "The Way"

It seems almost an eternity away from today that Benoit Franquet first made his debut in the electronic music scene with 'Apollo Vibes', a track regarded by many as one of the highlights of that chapter in the Global Underground and Bedrock era from the early 2000's. Indeed, it was the foundation for a successful relationship with John Digweed's label that borne several more singles, culminating in the release of 2005's artist album 'Zero Gold'. Fast forward to 2009 and we arrive at La Tour, Pole Folder's own imprint and a platform for his body of work, side projects and collaborations, the first of which is 'The Way'.

While the original version of the track may still maintain some of the trademark atmospheric sweeps and melodic lines that adorn many of his prior releases, Pole Folder presents us with a glimpse of some of the organic values, live instrumentation and cinematic values that he has honed and developed in the time since Zero Gold. While the overall result sways slightly towards a somewhat retrospective electronic influence, there's enough substance to show that the Belgian still has many more ideas to present, which we will hopefully see as the label develops over the coming months.

The remix comes from Spooky, themselves longtime stalwarts of the dance scene, with Charlie May and Duncan Forbes having amassed an impressive discography of singles and albums over their fifteen year plus history. Their reimaging of 'The Way' takes the original's best elements and drops them right in the heart of a throbbing big room progressive techno epic. It may seem like a world away from some of their other recent work but if there's anything Messrs May and Forbes have always succeeded in doing, and that's always delivering the unexpected.

'The Way' and indeed the La Tour project marks a seemingly new chapter in the career of Pole Folder. From the tower that is Studio 80Hz, we can look forward to such tracks as 'Ghost Life' and quite possibly that much anticipated second artist album, with other artists on the label set to include Charlie May with more to be announced.