The Dark Captain Light Captain record, Miracle Kicker that came out last year seemed to bleed slowly into peoples’ consciousnesses ”“ it was a slow-burner for sure, with it’s odd mix of spooked electronics and folk stylings, and come the end of the year seemed to boast a herd of supporters, especially in the US. Whilst we await a new album, and as a sweetener for a number of tour dates the band are about to undertake, we have this remix EP, featuring mixes from members of the band and a couple of producers. Having listened to this a good few times now it seems such an effortless extension of the album, as if these facets of the tracks were already there and have just been teased out. The Chicken Feed remix of ‘Remote View’ is a case in point. Chicken Feed adds a throbbing bassline and a queasy bed of electronics to the original, yet the track maintains that air of menace ”“ if anything, the remix has transported this from the sinister-pastoral to an urban setting, the peripheral eye searching the shadows for disorder. The Here Be Monsters mix of ‘Miracle Kicker’ guts the original and sucks it backwards through a vortex, warping it into near Belong-like shapes ”“ the drones that closed the original now resembling bowed reflections of themselves.Despite this ominous edge, it’s the two Hatchback remixes at either end of the EP that give it its real sense of colour. Hatchback’s signature style is a kind of pastoral-ambient thing, lots of dripping keys and washes of synths ”“ not unlike Ulrich Schnauss. His mixes, whilst probably removing some of that darkness from the originals, and without radically altering them, actually transform them into something completely different: all you can ask of from a mix really. The first is a ‘vocal mix’, the second version, the most affecting of the two, is a ‘dub mix’ that has a woozy late summer feel. Now, as we sense the call of winter, our bodies relearning the changed shape of the air this is just about the perfect riposte. Beautiful.