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Now, first off I realise that whenever I review remix albums I always seem to open up with some spiel relating to how they tend to be an extremely mixed bag; ranging from some truly inspired (and often sadly too rare) collections of creative re-interpretation, rather through to thinly-disguised excuses for labels to take a second bite of the cherry. In truth, this remix album from Death From Above 1979 couldn’t be any more illustrative of the aforementioned point. DFA 1979’s (yes, that will tick off one James Murphy, if he’s reading this) debut album ‘You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine’ of last year proved to be something of a breakthrough ‘hit’ for the Canadian bass / drums / Moog-driven electro-garage rock duo, with singles such as ‘Black History Month’ and ‘Romantic Rights’ maintaining a steadier presence on trendier dancefloors (not least with the latter receiving a storming dance reworking by Trash founder Erol Alkan).
With an increasingly large level of crossover potential looming with regard to the dance music crowd, this remix album acts as something of a more dancefloor-based companion release to ‘You’re A Woman…’ and collects together all of the various remixes released previously on 12”, as well as a couple of B-sides and a handful of newly-commissioned mixes. At this point, a quick glance at the tracklisting confirms the presence of one overriding problematic factor when listening to this album from start to finish. Rather than being a ‘track for track’ remix effort, of the total 13 tracks collected here, eight of them are either a different mix of ‘Black History Month’ or ‘Romantic Rights’ – while hardcore DFA 1979 fans who missed the vinyl or DJs keen to have all the remixes on one convenient disc are bound to be overjoyed, for the rest of us it’s a decidedly different proposition.
After bursting open with an overdriven rockist cover version of Boston punk outfit La Peste’s ‘Better Off Dead’ that kicks things off with a ‘live at CBGBs’ vibe, Justice’s clunky, buzzing electro-rock reworking of ‘Blood On Our Hands’ comes across as similar to a more analogue synth-heavy Soulwax, with Jesse Keeler’s strangulated yelped delivery ringing out over retro-sounding handclaps, programmed snares and grinding electronics; in fact, it represents such a comparatively interesting moment that you’re left wondering why it’s the only remix of said track on offer here, when there’s such an overabundance of versions of ‘Black History Month’ and ‘Romantic Rights.’ Of the numerous different mixes of ‘Romantic Rights’ on offer, Erol Alkan’s searing reworking still emerges head and shoulders as the most interesting version here, with Alkan scattering in spinning bongos and squealing redline synths but otherwise concentrating on crafting a particularly spectacular extended re-edit that doesn’t mess too much with the original track, while Jesper Dahlback also contributes a characteristically excellent reworking that strips out the original’s more serrated guitar riffs in favour of an icily synth-laden electro-house trajectory. Alas, the other mixes on offer here fare considerably less well, with Paul Epworth appearing under his Phones guise for a Switch-esque broken house reworking that proves to be slightly too juddery and hectic for its own good, while the kitschy disco stylings and vocoder overuse of Marczech Makuziak’s version gets ugly pretty quickly.
It’s a situation that also proves to be similar in the case of the numerous versions of ‘Black History Month’ that make up a large portion of the tracklisting, and the two most interesting reworkings here come from two camps that couldn’t be any more different from another if they tried. Stardust mainman Alan Braxe appears alongside regular production cohort Fred Falke for a streamlined disco-house reworking that proves to be one of the biggest highlights here, Keeler’s catchy chorus hook merging perfectly with its beefed-up backing of sheeny electro-disco synth bass, while QOTSA’s Josh Homme unveils one of this compilation’s biggest surprises with a delicate and evocative reworking that starts off like something you’d expect to encounter on the Leaf label, trailing ambient windchime tones and dowbeat drums slowly gathering momentum beneath Keeler’s echoing, reverb-laden vocals, Homme’s own subtle vocal harmonies adding a slow-burning edge, shortly before things crunch into stinging feedback and clattering martial percussion. As for the remainder on offer here, there’s a perfectly good B-side in supply, ‘You’re Lovely (But You’ve Got Problems)’ that comes capably produced by Paul Epworth, as well as two reasonably solid reworkings of two other album tracks by Keeler’s MSTRKRFT alter ego that once again beggar the question as to why the Canadian duo didn’t select a more diverse cross section of their album for the remix treatment. You probably already know whether you want to pick this one up or not; and in this case, it’ll depend on how excited you are by the proposition of owning eight different mixes of ‘Romantic Rights / Black History Month.’ A remix album that comes across as similar to one of those big maxi-singles (remember them, fellow oldies?) than anything else.
Check out www.deathfromabove1979.com and www.lastgangrecords.com
