Ewan Pearson: Piece Work

Star mixers in clubland are so abundant that it's easy to lose track even while paying attention. But Ewan Pearson's work grabs and holds more readily than most. Piece Work is two consistent CDs worth of his remixes, and while it's bulkier than his other new CD, the DJ mix Fabric 35, it's also more immediately approachable. Pearson co-produced the last Rapture album, and his work on more traditionally structured songs—by The Chemical Brothers, featuring The Flaming Lips, Ladytron, Cortney Tidwell, or Franz Ferdinand—reworks the material into lush, juicy, easy-gliding electro-house grooves that maintain their structural sense. And when he tweaks more overtly beat-oriented stuff (Goldfrapp, Röyksopp, Silver City, Closer Musik), his juicy, contrasting timbres give his grooves an epic sense.