Portland-based IHP’s new remix of Xxtarlit’s Fleeting Frozen Hearts is a pumping techno banger, the kind of song that wants to tear your head apart from the inside out. Taking Xxtarlit’s original lolicore, hyperpop-esque sound, and turning the intensity up to eleven, the remix is a powerful rework that keeps everything great about the original intact.
In the remix, drum n’ bass percussion from the original song serves as a backbone to the pounding hard techno kick, with a neurofunk snare coming in to provide even more maximalist power. Underneath the heavily distorted kick and massive EDM snare, though, there is a quiet vulnerability to this song: a piano melody and vocal sample offer a gentle breather in the beginning and middle of the track, serving as a place of rest between the relentless dnb rhythms and the fluttering, ripping synthesizers.
IHP deftly walks the line of respecting the original work by keeping this vulnerability while adding their own uniquely powerful twist to a song and genre that they clearly respect. Making their mark in the quickly rising breakbeat revival amongst artists like PinkPantheress, Sewerslvt, and Machine Girl, IHP earns their place as a unique talent in an ever-diversifying music culture.