Hey! and EC Records label boss Michel De Hey teams up with long term collaborator Mirko van Dommelen, or M.I.R.K.O. as he’s known to his friends, for this darn fine slab of melodic techno.

Quartz has had some great artists featured on their roster - including David K, Dubfire and D’Julz - and has been steadily releasing a repertoire of solid techno (check last years’ Split The Line) with some good success. 5th Business Day can only help expose Quartz further by widening its audience to a tech-house and even a house crowd. Driven by an insistent, funky bassline, it's dancefloor-friendly from the start, punctuated by a melodic house riff that echoes the bassline, and layer upon layer of synths and other sounds all working towards that insistent melody. This single-mindedness works really well; the result being a groove as solid as concrete, quite literally laying the foundations for the rest of the track. When the counter elements are introduced - cool melody to play off the original riff and nice crisp percussion - the whole thing steps up a gear. When the main-riff drops in the short breakdown, there’s no doubt it’s rocking. Programmed into a techno, tech-house or house set this is always going to be a big moment, but a credible one too. Winner.

On the flip, the ever-popular Nic Fanciulli does a great job in providing a contrasting remix, stripping out most of the melodic elements in favour of a monster techno groove. Where the original elements are used, they’re given a slightly different treatment and arrangement, syncopating them differently to engender a surreal off-kilter vibe - dipping into the melodic elements but never using them as the major element of the track. This works well, but make no mistake; it’s all about the relentless groove.

A big release for Quartz, solid stuff whether you prefer the purer techno sound of Nic Fancuilli's remix or the more melodic sound of the original.