Boogie Angst has delivered the perfect post summer festival remixed dance album as Kraak & Smaak's 'Velvet Seas' album gets a fresh brush up by some of our favourite remixers - out 4th September!
Been a bit quiet on the Boogie Angst front since Fouk's 'Sunday' EP (with Archil & Leo, Phenomenal Handclap Band and 79.5 - see review HERE) possibly because they've been working on this monster of the underworld, Kraak & Smaak's 'Velver Seas - Remixed'!
We known Kraak & Smaak as the duo formed in Leiden that had their own blend of funk, disco and electronic soul that's resulted in seven albums over the past two decades. And during that time, Oscar de Jong, Wim Plug and Mark Kneppers have sharpened a sound that's unmistakably their own: warm, analogue, and always twisting old soul into something new. That sound has carried them from small European clubs to Coachella and American late night TV.
Their 2025 album Velvet Seas was written between Leiden and Los Angeles, and it shows: Californian light and a touch of psychedelia sit easily alongside deep funk and a cinematic reach. The record leaned on a wide circle of guests, among them IVAR, Berenice van Leer, Izo FitzRoy, Butter Bath, The Undercover Dream Lovers, iogi, Kosta G and Kainalu.Velvet Seas Remixed hands the album's best moments to a curated set of international producers. British disco heritage, classic French touch, Brazilian disco funk, Melbourne club music and homegrown Dutch groove all take a turn, with each producer bending a familiar song toward their own instincts while keeping the album's character intact. Longer, extended versions and alternate mixes round out the full release, letting several of these tracks land in more than one form.
It opens at a late afternoon pace, with Kosta G's warm, West Coast streaked vocal drifting across the original's hazy calm. French producer Yuksek (he of Partyfine) hears that ease and decides to dance with it, rebuilding the song around bright, tropical percussion and a springy bassline, nodding to Italo disco and vintage French touch while keeping everything built for the floor.
From there the record opens outward. Rio producer Diogo Strausz, who built his name fusing electronic production with Brazilian disco funk (see review of his 'Dance Para Se Salvar' album HERE), takes one of the album's biggest orchestral highs and opens it out further still, surrounding it with congas and circling synths that nod to Brazilian studio greats like Robson Jorge and Lincoln Olivetti for a sunlit, beach ready rework.
Then comes Anoraak, the project of French musician Frédéric Rivière and a key figure in the Valerie Collective, who takes one of the album's lighter, more effortless pleasures and treats it with real respect. He stretches the groove and adds flickers of disco brilliance, keeping Butter Bath's cool, understated voice front and centre but opening a bigger, darker space
around it: the result is polished but instinctive, and made to move.
The emotional weight lands at the centre of the record. British dance lifer Ray Mang and remix addict (see HERE) has been recording since 1996, gives the album's title track the space to stretch out into an extended, percussion driven arrangement with a warm, dubby disco engine, letting Izo FitzRoy's gospel schooled voice rise and soar until what felt like a sunrise on the original becomes a floor at full pelt.
Harvey Sutherland is another that knows a remix (see HERE) takes things in the opposite direction. The Melbourne producer strips the cosmic soul warmth of Real Love back to bare rhythm, tightening the loops and letting a circling synth line and repeating bassline carry the track from cosmic blur into sharp, hypnotic club focus.
The final two tracks return to different corners of the album from opposite ends. Dutch producer Stirmouth (Xavier Morssinkhof) pulls Heat down into the pocket with swung drums, a heavy low end and warm chords that frame Butter Bath's cool in a dustier, more soul soaked setting.
Then Sound Support, the pairing of Lars Dales and Lorenz Rhode, take Travel Light straight for the strobes: punchy programmed drums, bright analogue tones and rubbery basslines, tipping between Italo, early house and classic disco for a tighter, more combustible take on the original's orchestral rush.
Across Britain, France, Brazil, Australia and the Netherlands, Velvet Seas Remixed holds onto the melodic instinct and analogue warmth at the heart of Kraak & Smaak's music, even as it pushes the Velvet Seas world brighter, leaner and further out.
NOTE: available digitally and as a limited picture disc vinyl - check the amazing artwork!
Artist: Kraak & Smaak
BUY LINK / PRE-ORDER: https://www.juno.co.uk/products/kraak-smaak-velvet-seas-remixed-vinyl/1171249-01/
Artist: Kraak & Smaak
Title: Velvet Seas Remixed
Release date: 4th September, 2026
Label : Boogie Angst
Catalog Number : BA 150V
Format: Digital / Bandcamp
%20presents%20Shiftless%20Shuffle.jpg)
.jfif)
