IMANU has spent 2020 proving he belongs at Drum & Bass’ sharp end — the seismic Cheren landed in September, and the Dutch producer has been heating up ever since. Re: IMANU arrives on Vision Recordings, Noisia’s own imprint, and it’s a canny flex: rather than a run-of-the-mill rework package, it hands his catalogue to six of the scene’s most exciting young operators — Buunshin, Bop, Kimyan Law, Atrip, Skantia and Herzeloyde — and lets each one drag the material into their own corner.
The results are gloriously varied. Skantia’s take on Nonplus is the heavy-hitter of the set, a five-minute exercise in surgical pressure; the original’s dark, rolling tension is rebuilt around a brutal, mid-tempo swing, every percussive hit placed with the clinical precision of the Vision house sound. Buunshin’s “Go Outside” remix of Music to Stay in Your House To is the record’s most playful moment — a title that winked at lockdown back in its original form, now reframed as a spiky, elastic workout that skips between half-time menace and clipped, four-on-the-floor urgency. Herzeloyde’s take on Whatever It Takes keeps the vocal hook front and centre, wrapping it in a skittish, garage-tinged bounce that gives the EP its most immediate singalong moment.
Re: IMANU sees the vanguard of the new DnB generation remix IMANU's catalogue on Noisia's Vision imprint.
The B-side goes deeper. Atrip’s remix of Monchou leans into the techier side of the original, threading a nervy, minimal groove through sheets of reverb-drenched atmosphere; it’s the kind of track that works twice as hard in a dark room. Bop’s Noir is the longest and most patient piece here — nearly six minutes of cavernous pads and dread-heavy bass weight, the drums held back until the tension is almost unbearable, then released in a rolling, percussive surge. It’s the most cinematic the EP gets, and the highlight of the whole record. Kimyan Law closes with Bloom, and his remix lives up to the title — a warm, chord-driven closer where delicate textures and airy percussion bloom slowly outwards, the drums receding to let the melody breathe.
Taken together, Re: IMANU does something clever: it doesn’t just showcase the originals, it maps out the ecosystem IMANU sits at the centre of. Each remixer brings their own signature — Bop’s weight, Buunshin’s wit, Kimyan Law’s warmth — yet the record hangs together as a single statement. For a producer still building his catalogue, it’s a confident and generous move, and it confirms what 2020 already suggested: IMANU is the new generation’s standard-bearer, and the scene is following his lead.
