Call Super dropped two separate singles not too long ago this year - 'Illumina' in collaboration with Julia Holter and 'Sapling' with Eden Samara - which somehow evaded my attention despite the names involved. I listened to Illumina out of understandable intrigue and I am sure that I liked it but lone singles can occasionally fall by the wayside and, regrettably, I forgot about their existence entirely. Perhaps I was not alone in this regard. Call Super quickly announced a follow-up remix pack for the singles, expanding the initial releases into an EP and promising, in a social media caption, clubbier interpretations of each song. The result is The Doves Of Discipline Mixes, and it is glorious.

The first moments of the EP are almost laugh-out-loud funny. On 'Illumina (Doves of Discipline Mix)', Call Super rips a single "illumina" chant directly out of the original song before launching abruptly into no-holds-barred tech house. It is restless and brash and utterly non-cohesive, the sound of a hot commodity in dance music itching to drop a festival favourite before the European summer peaks. The track very quickly finds its footing, however, as lush pads and Holter's airy vocalisations are subtly weaved into the fabric of the song. Then those organ stabs hit and the song ascends, and you can immediately envision the mass arms raised on a Tisno beach or in an Amsterdam woodland. Dancers - try not to grin when it drops. Deejays - here is a cheat code on a spinning platter. Yet this is no piece of pandering crowd fodder - the placement of Holter's spellbinding voice and a wailing oboe turn the track into something genuinely enchanting, a feeling that typifies the very heart of this EP.

The rest of the release is no less of a marvel. The tracks that follow are wondrous and hypnotic, and while they are uptempo, they retain only some of the residual energy spun off from Illumina's arresting remix. They chart a non-traditional course for the dancefloor, destined not for the driving peaktime nor for the elated sunrise, but for the curious, experimental hours in between. 'Sapling (Doves of Discpline Mix)' forgoes the ruthless efficiency of its preceding remix. Instead, it meanders, comprised of sounds and rhythms that splinter off in all directions to create something that feels polyrhythmic, even if it really isn't. It has a light touch, buoyed by a bubbling house pulse with a distinctly UK flavour. And at nearly ten minutes in length, Call Super gives the track the appropriate space to evolve. At the halfway mark, it retreats into a stunning breakdown - just Samara's chanting on a delay loop above a deep, lonesome horn - and becomes noticeably psychedelic when it emerges again. The beat feels more insistent, the bass a little bit louder, and strange sounds seem to fly in and out of focus quicker than they did before. Believe me when I say that these final four minutes are transcendent like little else I have heard in dance music this year.

This is an immaculately crafted release for so many reasons, one of which being the placement of 'Illumina' and 'Sapling', the source material for this EP, on the B-side. Both songs reveal their left-field beauty in the wake of their relatively more accessible, four-to-the-floor Doves of Discpline Mix. 'Illumina' is built up from a skeletal, constrained drum-and-bass pattern and directed by Holter's bewitching voice - it sounds as if she is giving permission for new elements to progressively join the instrumental. The result is something hurried and anxious, with chimes, squelchy acid lines and that frenetic oboe whisking you towards an ominous finish line. It is masterfully controlled chaos. The same can be said for 'Sapling', although the two tracks differ substantially in mood. By contrast to 'Illumina', the song is rich, swirling and gorgeously harmonic. Samara's ethereal melodies are layered like patchwork above syncopated organic percussion and generous bass, at once grounded and atmospheric. In its final minutes, 'Sapling' moves into truly dreamlike territory, its busy, pristinely balanced production appearing before you like a dynamic sonic ecosystem. Make no mistake, The Doves Of Discipline Mixes is an exceptional release, home to some of the most intricate world-building you are likely to hear on any record in 2023.

88

Sam Gollings

29 July 2023