Borderland is a beautiful collaboration between Woodleigh Research Facility’s Nina Walsh and viola virtuoso, Sarah Sarhandi. Sarah’s career holds many, many stories, including sessions with Rip Rig & Panic, and  their spin-off, Float UP CP, plus playing on The Raincoats’ post-punk disco-not-disco classic, Animal Rhapsody. 

Based, in part, upon Pachelbel’s Canon in D Minor, Borderland mixes sinister percussive slithering, like an electronic rattlesnake shaking its tail, with aching, more traditional, orchestration. The resulting chilled chamber music is ceremonial, celebratory in mood and feeling. Dancing to pretty plucked pizzicato patterns, imagine The Sabres Of Paradise remixing Louisville string sextet, Rachel’s. 

Speaking of The Sabres, two of their number took it in turns to give the tune a makeover. Before he passed, Andrew Weatherall set Sarah’s strings to an energetic electro glam stomp. A cracking kosmische, motorik “Pomp & Circumstance” march, with something of the Depeche Modes / New Orders about it. Having established his bass, he homes in on the very hummable melody. Hammering it until you can’t get it out of your head. 

Jagz Kooner then hijacks the hypnotic hook from Frankie Knuckles / Jamie Principle’s Your Love. This alone would induce a Pavlovian response in ravers / revellers of a certain age – and send them straight to the nearest dancefloor. However, taking Andrew’s remix as his template Jagz vamps on Mr. Principle’s ringing riff, and houses the track right up. Finding the knob marked “Anthem” and twisting it, hard, to 11. Creating an epic, now more Chicago’s Trax Records meets the last night of the BBC Proms. Spiked with acid and showered with sonic fireworks, while Weatherall wistfully whispers, “Can you see the rockets?”

Woodleigh Research Facility’s Apparently Solo Volume 4, containing all 3 mixes of Borderland, is available now, via Bandcamp.