Efficient Space released Volition Cuts Vol. 1 – a four-track EP that pays tribute to Volition Records, the seminal Australian label that helped shape the country’s club and electronic music scene in the early 1990s. Four tracks are reimagined in remix form, tracing a sonic arc through house, dub, ambient and progressive house.
Opening the compilation is »In The Neighbourhood (Sisters On The Boulevarde Dub)« by Sisters Underground. The original track – a gentle rap-soul anthem recorded by Ōtara teenagers Brenda Makamoeafi and Hassanah Iroegbu – helped define New Zealand’s emerging R&B sound. For the EP, producer Robert Racic, one of the central forces behind Volition’s output, reworked the song into a dubbed-out hip-house version. It’s both the emotional anchor of the collection and a belated homage to Racic, who passed away in 1996.
The centrepiece is »Fall (Voyage To The Bottom Of The Dub Remix)« by Single Gun Theory – a dreamlike ambient-pop group reinterpreted here by Apollo 440. The result is a gem of trance-infused progressive house, a testament to the label’s enduring appetite for genre-defying vision.
Volition Cuts Vol. 1 is more than an exercise in nostalgia. The EP highlights a significant, often overlooked chapter in Australian music history. While each track has been reshaped for a contemporary context, the producers have retained the essence of the originals – translating the proggy, dubbed-out dreamscapes of 1990s Australia into the present tense.
Volition Cuts Volume 1
