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| Black Strobe (Ivan Smagghe and Arnaud Rebotini) have made a name for themselves remixing artists and spicing up crap bands’ flat music with a darker, edgier sound. |
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New single, ‘Shining Bright Star’, comes ahead of Black Strobe’s forthcoming A Remix Selection album, which drops on 4th December and will see the in-demand duo mashing up the likes of Depeche Mode and The Rapture. But ‘Shining Bright Star’ is not a reworking, it is a Black Strobe original. And although it is released as a ‘Phones Industrial Remix’ (with added tinkerings by Paul Epworth), the creative outpourings here belong to Smagghe and Rebotini.
This cut is partially a throw-back to the electronic goth sound of the 80’s, but at its best it sounds like a modern attempt at Throbbing Gristle style industrial noise. Dark and minimal, the song carries an insistent, unchanging beat that gives it the same brutal, machine-like quality that is at the heart of Kraftwerk’s best material. Meanwhile, the screech of Japanese noise-rock guitars and the drone of cold synths conjure up an image of Robert Smith lookalikes walking through an 80’s industrial site.
Sadly, all the track’s initial promise is eventually killed off by that make-or-break element of dance music - the vocal. The whining male vocalist may be trying his best to sound cold and desperate, but his squeals of “ooh baby” quickly become nauseating, and it’s hard to resist jettisoning the disc in favour of one of Smagghe’s quality mixes (i.e. 'Bugged Out' or 'Fabric 23').
At least while the vocalist’s mouth is kept firmly shut you can appreciate the dark sound that Black Strobe bring to their remixes - and which will hopefully make the forthcoming album still worth getting hold of. I only hope for a better choice of artists to remix - although the presence of Bloc Party already gives me some concern.
But as a stand-alone single, ‘Shining Bright Star’ just doesn’t hold up - the duo should really have ditched the singer and cut a couple of repetitive minutes off the end. |
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| Michael Johns - 6/10 |
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