Platonos, Lena

***Lena Platonos is a pioneer of the Greek electronic music scene of the 1980s. She produced and released her second solo album, ‘Gallop’, in 1985 that we reissued in 2015. The album is made exclusively using analog synthesizers and heavily features the iconic Roland TR-808 drum machine. Lena narrates each song, reciting her own surreal Greek poetry with unique skill. Lena says of ‘Gallop’, “It’s a study in the mythology of urban population of the contemporary metropolis and also a gaze into the future life of it.” We’ve asked Red Axes to chose their four favorite songs from ‘Gallop’ and create remixes for each one. Red Axes is Tel-Aviv based producers and DJs Dori Sadovnik and Niv Arzi, releasing their own productions and remixes since 2009 on I’m a Cliché, Correspondant and Hivern Discs. The duo was raised on a steady diet of post-punk, new-wave and Italo-disco at fogged out warehouse and basement parties. They’ve transform “Witches” and “And We Hear “I Love You”” into solid dancefloor tools. “No. 9” and “Liqueur Ruby” transport the listener to a hypnotic state tripped out in a psychedelic mist, with the latter featuring middle eastern rhythms by fellow Tel Aviv musicians The Dirty Lizards. All songs have been mastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The jacket riffs off the original ‘Gallop’ cover, isolating the photograph of Lena layered on a grid backdrop designed by Eloise Leigh. Each copy includes a two-sided postcard with a manipulated frame from one of Lena’s music videos.