The Asphodells album remixed by most of the axis powers is finally upon us (friends and colleagues of messrs Fairplay and Weatherall not the bad ones from world war two) and here is my humblest of opinionated thoughts upon hearing it with my own two ears.
Opening with Another Lonely City by Group Rhoda (one Mara Barenbaum), this easily sets the mood for the rest of what is to come.Ethereal and melancholic as it is the original sound is still present within its new body,short enough to not get boring yet it has enough potential to be one of those good earworms you undoubtedly prefer over Agadoo. Phil Kieran steps up on a remix of Late Flowering Lust, with a swaggering riff accompanying sinister pulsing synths creating a sweeping east end film noir feel sitting atop a tightly structured percussive rhythm section.
Third in the queue is Justin Robertsons Deadstock 33s remix of Beglammered,stripped down and leaving just the ghosts of the original and then forming any remaining components into a sleeker more unforgiving beast. Next up is the mysterious (George Thompson,now less mysterious) Black Merlins take on Skwatch,effortlessly sounding like a John Carpenter track fed steroids by the anti christ. This chugs along with enough menace to make lesser mortal tracks step to one side whilst it cruises by like nobodies business,it certainly has had the most plays from me so far. The singularly plural Hardway Brothers take on Never There,whilst it would have been easy for Sean Johnston to ring this one in you know he made a choice to create a less is more approach and tweaked it to tease us into wanting the dirty bassline to pulsate to a crescendo that never is.
Daniel Avery submits his remix of We Are The Axis,starting off with the familiar percussion but slowly removing almost every trace of the original and placing layer over layer of harmonic dissonance to create an ecstatic rapturous effect and ending with a rather discombobulating wobble. Danielle Baldelli and DJ Rocca turn in a wonderful version of Another Lonely City, adding their own layers and Mediterranean cosmic motifs to the distinctive guitar of the original version. Beglammered gets sharpened up by Richard Sen,retaining the Arabian sound of the original and upping the tempo to add a sense of focus and drive.You (by you I mean me) can almost envisage The Asphodells themselves mooching around the Soukh and chuffing on a hookah before riding off into the night perched on ships of the desert.
Scott Fraser brings us back to a sweaty night in a distinguished club near you in a remarkably jacking style,keeping the bass bubbling under just enough to give a lead to rimshots, claps and other percussion.The biggest surprise for me on this album and rounding it all off is Ivan Smagghes remix of One Minutes silence,in a good way it is not what I was expecting.A banger is what I would have thought he would produce but it is gloriously freeform and uncaring,well I say freeform however it starts off like the original but mutates from there on in to something like audio Marmite.
Asphodells remixed is currently available on CD and download from Rotters Golf Club here with the vinyl release not far off. The usual physical record stores and online outlets will have this available from Sept 2nd.
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