mp3: LALI PUNA alienation (alias remix)
mp3: ONE AM RADIO what you gave away (alias remix)
the struggle between author and editor on any remix is what makes the artform such a fascinating exercise. whilst few mixers take a reverential approach, many still find it impossible to negotiate the tipping point – where the work ceases to belong to the original artist and becomes a new work entirely. finding comfort in neither side of the fence, those mixes tend to be forgettable, disposable and ultimately redundant. others take a more hardcore stance – richard aphex james being a perfect example – often stripping out everything from the original bar the odd loop or two. it takes a steady hand and a dash of bravado to turn in a remix that pays sufficient homage, whilst still taking the music on an entirely unexpected journey.
there’s been an upturn of remixer collections of late – whereas the artist-branded remix album has been around for over twenty years, we’re now starting to see the remixers themselves grab the title spot. four tet‘s recent curation was uniformly excellent, and succeeded in framing his previous album, ‘everything is ecstatic’, in a glorious new light. dfa‘s two volume remix collection abundantly proved that respect for context can often lead us into uncharted dimensions.
and so to anticon’s alias, whose ‘collected remixes’ straddles a fascinating cross-section of contemporary artists working in the hinterland of electronica and alt.hip-hop. i first came to alias in 2003, with the ‘eyes closed’ e.p. – it remains one of those releases that succeeds in throwing your preconceptions off tracks; prior to this, i never knew that instrumental hip hop could be so visionary and so self-contained. it seemed that both alias and his anticon stablemates had succeeded where countless others had failed, and had wrestled hip hop into an entirely new region, a territory they have continued to map ever since.
unlike four tet’s disc, which barely scratched the surface of his remix career and was just as significant for those it chose to leave behind, ‘collected remixes’ would appear to be exactly that – the definitive collection of brendon whitney’s remixes to date. however, with representation some of the finest european labels such as gooom, ninja tune, morr, 2nd rec and gronland, we can be assured that there’s sufficient breadth and quality therein. his work for the notwist / themselves collaboration, 13 & god, stands as a highlight, as does his treatment of lunz‘s “clue”. perhaps the most well known name here is lali puna, and he gives “alienation” a suitably morose and sorrowful reworking. as a taster for his forthcoming album (a fully instrumental collection, the long-awaited solo follow up to 2003’s “muted”), “collected remixes” can hold its head as a fully rounded release in its own right.
more info at anticon.com