Six Comm / Hexas - Torture Gardeners / Beneath The Sin

This is a great split single between Six Comm and Hexas who get together for some retro club 6 remixes. That's right club mixes of Hexas and Six Comm's take on 'The Torture Garden' both mixed by Patrick Leagas.

I was wondering whether Patrick Leagas was a constant or brutal gardener? It's probably a bit if of both since he's digging through his past once again with this reworking of 'The Torture Garden'. 'The Torture Garden' is of course an old Death In June track originally shrouded in Gregorian chants and melodic synths lines appearing on the From Torture To Conscience compilation and subsequently re-recorded for 6 Comm's retrospective Like Stukas Angels Fall. For this single under the title of 'Torture Gardeners' he provides the most radical of reworkings of this classic Death In June track.

With slight treatments around his voice he intones the lyrics, and joined by Gaya it whips into a rhythmic dance mix. Dive bombing synths and rolling electro rhythms all created on vintage equipment surround his assured and brooding baritone vocals. Occasionally pierced by the clang of the bell it thunders onwards with fast-paced rhythms and revving synths, ebbing out with Patrick declaring "we are the torture gardeners" just as an electro sequence leads directly to silence. Those familiar with 'The Torture Garden' will be surprised by this club mix.

Hexas don't need too delve as far back, offering a remix of 'Beneath The Sun' from 2017's mini-album Liberty Nest. It pounds to dark dance edged electronic rhythms as backdrop to Gaya's incantations as electro sequences kick in and Gaya controls the proceedings with a commanding snarl and sneer, with slight vocal backing from Patrick Leagas. 'Beneath The Sun' on Liberty Nest was already a powerful atmospheric rhythmic beast, this one, retitled as 'Beneath The Sin', is much more rhythmically involved, pulsing and throbbing to a harsher electrobeat.

Gaya Donadio and Patrick Leagas are on a creative roll at the moment. Last year as Hexas they released the mini-album Liberty Nest featuring vibrant rhythms and electronics laced with noise and their differing vocal approach combining the harsh noise of Gaya's ACL project with Patrick's more atmospheric and richly percussive rhythms. This single pushes Hexas' 'Beneath The Sun' further into club territory while on 'Torture Gardeners' Patrick Leagas as Six Comm digs back into his musical roots nurturing this eighties Death In June track into the most radical of mixes. It's all good stuff but way too short; the 'Torture Gardeners' for one has had a severe pruning - don't these people know club mixes need a 12-inch. Who cares though, it's a wonderful single, signed and packaged with a number of stickers and inserts co-released by Biotope Art Organization and Hagshadow. For more information go to Hagshadow