There’s no doubt that Jamie Lidell’s ‘Multiply’ proved to be one of the most irresistible and unexpected delights of last year, with the former Super_Collider frontman shedding the more ‘difficult’ IDM / techno of his earlier albums such as ‘Muddlin’ Gear’ in favour of a vocal-led singer / songwriter pop approach that had many making comparisons with the likes of Prince, Bobby McFerrin and even the Isley Brothers. In many ways making good on the tantalising vocal appearances he’d previously made in cameos on records such as Matthew Herbert’s big band project ‘Goodbye Swingtime’, ‘Multiply’ showed Lidell collaborating with co-producer and longtime associate Mocky to fashion a record that was in his own words ‘less about a sonic space-race’ and more geared towards rawness and soul. Now, one year on, this cleverly-titled companion release ‘Multiply Additions’ collects together reworkings of tracks from ‘Multiply’ by Matthew Herbert, Luke Vibert, Four Tet, Mara Carlyle, Freeform Five, Gonzales and Mocky alongside two tracks recorded live during Lidell’s recent tour, rendering it a slightly curious release that hovers somewhere between remix and live album.

This collection opens with a live version of ‘You Got Me Up’ recorded last year at London’s Scala, with Lidell capably backed onstage by a band that features Gonzales, Mocky, Taylor Savvy and Captain Comatose’s Snax, Gonzales sweetly tinkling the ivories in a restrained and laidback show opener that slowly flexes its soul muscle, with the creeping bass and cymbal splashes hinting at a sudden explosion forward as Lidell’s raw soul vocals reach towards the venue’s ceiling and the audience goes bananas. It’s certainly a fantastic snapshot of Lidell’s skills live in the flesh and also one that illustrates the deft abilities of his touring band to both improvise and reinterpret album tracks from the ground up on the fly; something that will certainly have those lucky enough to have caught Lidell at his Hyde Park Barracks show last year reminiscing. By comparison, Gonzales’ ‘In A Minor Key’ reworking of ‘Multiply’ really doesn’t depart too much from the original version or add much extra to the equation, although the additional bar-room piano antics certainly do sit effectively against samples of a particularly rowdy crowd, loose handclaps and Lidell’s intimately-miked growl, while Freeform Five’s streamlined electro-house reworking of ‘When I Come Back Around’ offers up this collection’s most ‘main room’ dance moment, tossing what sounds like virtually all of the drum machines Prince used on ‘Controversy’ beneath a thick electro bassline that sits somewhere between Tiefschwarz and Blackstrobe, swelling sub-bass curving beneath Lidell’s darting funk falsetto as squealing retro synth solos soar skywards in a pure P-funk moment.

Kieran ‘Four Tet’ Hebden takes ‘The City’ and tosses it down a moodily sinister house tunnel, with eerily disembodied sounding samples of mobile phone keys being pressed rolling alongside dubbed-out bursts of electronic noise and fluid, vaguely ESG-flavoured cymbal rides as a juddering, distorted sub-bassline that’s a close cousin to the growling fury unleashed on ‘A Joy’ off his most recent ‘Everything Ecstatic’ album takes things out on a furious dancefloor-centric excursion brimming with R2D2-esque bleepy chaos. Luke Vibert’s stellar reworking of ‘A Little Bit More’ meanwhile opts for a downbeat path, tossing sampled ragga DJs, all of his trademark warm-sounding analogue keys and snapping, razor-sharp hiphop beats beneath Lidell’s original vocal in a remix that manages to adeptly skirt the trademark Wagonchrist thin boundary between the funky, the kitsch and the just plaid odd as spooky-ooky keys judder their way alongside blaxploitation funk stabs, while Herbert’s bouncy ‘Hoedown Hump’ remix of ‘Multiply’ seems to miss the point slightly by pretty much removing all of Lidell’s vocals apart from a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fleeting appearance, though it does certainly show the PCCOM producer adding a hefty industrial slam to the original’s Otis Redding-styled grooves that takes things out towards the broken rhythms of Montreal duo Crackhaus, in a moment that sits somewhere between The Soggy Bottom Boys and something off Force Tracks.

Remix albums are often something of a precarious exercise, at best representing an inspired collection of reinterpretations that stand on their own, and at worst, coming across as a ropey and incoherent excuse for labels to take a second bite of the cherry. ‘Multiply Additions’ certainly leans closer towards the former description, though much of its overall sense of cohesion and flow is hampered by the fact that numerous tracks here appear more than once in different forms, rendering it a feeling reminiscent of those US maxi-singles at points, rather than a full remix album. What’s more, Jamie Lidell diehard fans will more than likely already have one or two of these tracks amongst their collection if they’ve been picking up the 12”s. I’ve heard mutterings that this disc was originally intended to be included in Lidell’s live DVD, which was originally set for release earlier this year – in many ways, this collection does appear to make more sense within that particular context. While ‘Multiply Additions’ certainly still packs plenty of appeal for those who loved ‘Multiply’, for this reviewer, the real gold was barely hinted at with just two live tracks featured here – I for one can’t wait to see the DVD.

Check out www.jamielidell.com and www.warprecords.com.