Our obsession with Kate Pending and Luke Tangerine‘s collaborative tracks has long been documented. We have featured the pair for their songs ICU, Ipanema Rendezvous, and most recently, Tomorrow’s Dreams of Yesterday, so naturally, when we heard that Kate was back with Luke’s remix of Exoplanet Signal, we couldn’t wait to listen and share our experience.
Exoplanet Signal opens with a dimensional, cosmic synthscape and the introspective lyrics, “How did you do me cold?”, expanding with a boundless bass synth. The opus evolves with a delicate timbre as Kate Pending shares the subversive prose, “I don’t wanna talk about it, no, I’ll do my thing and let my hair fall out…”
We immediately connect with the raw relatability of the message and the dynamics of the accompanying production. It’s cerebral and cinematic at the same time. We could imagine Exoplanet Signal being featured in an episode of Euphoria on HBO, or a film like Forbidden Fruits. The vocal design is ingenious with panning motifs, intertwined with psychedelic synths and an ethereal overarching construct.
There is no doubt that fans of Robyn would be able to connect with what Kate Pending and Luke Tangerine have created together. The echoing glitched nuances towards the end of the track are hypnotic and lead us through to a final synth arpeggio performance which leaves us yearning for more.
The origins of Exoplanet Signal – Remix lie in open creative collaboration, Kate explains, “After completing our album Tomorrow’s Dreams of Yesterday, Luke Tangerine shared his track, Exoplanet Signal, with me and simply said I could do whatever I wanted with it. As someone who hadn’t really explored remixing before, I saw it as an exciting opportunity to reinterpret a piece of music I already loved. Rather than trying to outdo the original, I wanted to take its nostalgic atmosphere and gently shift it into a different emotional space. The remix became brighter, more melodic and more rhythmically driven, while still respecting the mood that drew me to Luke’s version in the first place.”
On her sonic influences, Kate cites both Caribou and Luke Tangerine’s original composition as guiding inspirations. That philosophy shaped every production decision, as instead of chasing bigger drops or heavier club sounds, Kate focused on warmth, melody and emotional movement.
The production itself was deliberately organic, evolving over time instead of following a rigid studio plan. Working from her Berlin home studio gave Kate the freedom to experiment, refine and revisit ideas until the remix found its own identity. As she explains: “The recording process was less about using unusual equipment and more about allowing the music to evolve naturally through experimentation. Since this was my first serious remix project, I approached it with a lot of curiosity rather than a fixed plan. Luke had given me complete creative freedom, so instead of trying to recreate the original, I spent time exploring where it wanted to go. I began by identifying the elements of Luke’s original that I connected with most strongly. Rather than building everything from scratch, I focused on preserving the emotional heart of the track while gradually introducing new layers, rhythms and textures that reflected my own musical style.”
Needless to say, we continue to be in awe of what Kate Pending and Luke Tangerine create, and have added Exoplanet Signal – Remix to our New Music Spotlight playlist, and our TRIPPY playlist, whilst we continue to stream Luke’s original version of the track and the pair’s growing, collaborative discographies.