Dating Is In China

While Modeselektor’s recent Extended mixtape is populated with all sorts of musical experiments, even the duo’s most ardent fans might be surprised by Dating Is In China, which is quite possibly the most overtly pop track they’ve ever created. A collaboration with Argentinian artist (and Monkeytown regular) Catnapp, it’s also the title track of the third EP released in Extended’s aftermath, following on from Mean Friend and Social Distancing.

There’s something uniquely pure and honest about Catnapp’s performance, and Dating Is In China in general, but there’s no denying that the song’s hearton-sleeve pop makes it something of an outlier in the Modeselektor catalog. Two alternative versions were created by the Berlin duo themselves: Crunchy synths jab the Speed Dating Version, whereas Dated In China is a bath of meditative, drawn-out tones. Additional remixes are provided by Jersey club queen Uniiqu3, Swedish duo Asthma (a.k.a. Pär Grindvik and Peder Mannerfelt) as well as old friend TimTim.