Review Of Push EP by A-Trak, the album is now out on Fool's Gold records

5.5

Push EP

A-Trak

A-Trak never stops. The Fool’s Gold commander-in-chief Alain Macklovitch has a slew of collaborative projects in the works, including Federal Reserve, a forthcoming EP with Dipset veteran Cam’ron, Low Pros, a trap project with producer Lex Luger, and Duck Sauce with Armand Van Helden. On top of all this, he constantly performs live. A-Trak has never been much of a hit maker: he constantly releases music, but most of it falls under the radar. His friendly competitor/leader of Mad Decent crew Diplo is working at a similar level, with the only real difference being Diplo’s ability to write monster, Grammy-nominated hits. A-trak’s isn’t known for his songs as much as he is for his skills as a DJ, and in the era of Macbooks and Ableton, there aren’t many DJs who can hold a candle to A-Trak.

Today he gives us Push, a cheerful breakup anthem lead by Miike Snow front man Andrew Wyatt. Wyatt keeps it simple, with just the right amount of singing to not disrupt a crowd from jumping up and down. In addition to the original recording and earlier-released Chainsmokers remix of “Push”, the EP is equipped with 5 new remixes by producers such as PeaceTreaty, Cazzette and GANZ. If you’ve paid enough attention to EDM in the last few years, then you may know the feeling you get when you think you’ve heard a song before. Repetitive lyrics, piano stabs, and airy sweeps make most of Push a skip through, which leads us to the standouts. Amsterdam producer GANZ takes “Push” to a new place of frustration that the happier remixes overlook, and Shash U shows us what “Push” might have sounded like if Prince got his hands on it circa 1984. It’s just a lot of fun.  

Push needs to be played in front of massive amounts of people, and who better to do that than a guy who won the DMC World DJ Championship at age 15. Some these contributions may not be interesting enough for your daily mix, but there are standouts. We still have a lot more A-trak to come in the near future, so let’s
take it as it comes and be ready for what’s next.

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