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| Variations on a theme of fear and resilience! |
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Variations on a theme have a massively rich history, from Bach to Schoenberg. We have here a set of remixes, or, as the CD case states, "variations on [Fear & Resilience]." The word "remix" shares much at a conceptual level with the notion of "variation." A variation is not a cover, though; a "cover" typically means a recasting of the original work into the molds of "modern" or "current" trends. A variation takes some core themes of the original and does something compelling with them. So what is my point? This: one of the metrics for judging how good this album is will be how well it takes themes and mashes them up royally into something recognisable, but still great.
Pedro (James Rutledge) lines up a set of remixes from a mixture of artists, all of whom sit firmly in the current trend of "hiptronica", tracing their lineage from the likes of DJ Shadow and co. The results are often impressive in their variance and innovation around the rich source material. The title track, "Fear & Resilience" has enough potential to provide for routine breaks, ambient jazzlike meanderings or wild percussion. Prefuse 73's utterly distinctive stuttering orchestration opens the album, yet again using the simplest of vocal sounds, like draws of breath, to provide appropriately impactful moments. The noir dirge of Cherrystone's reconfiguration is barely recognisable except for some hints of warped cello, whereas Danger Mouse - master of The Grey Album's Apple Corps-infuriating infamy - does relatively little with the source besides some cursory rejigging. Finally, Home Skillet and Fourtet go for chaotic ambience and minimalist layering respectively, the only problem being that the Fourtet track simply goes on for too long and finishes "speaking" at about 12 minutes in or so. It is slightly irritating that "epic" has been confused with "dull" once again.
Fear & Resilience ends up, then, being a rather mixed bag, with some impressive reworkings of the title theme by Prefuse 73 and Home Skillet in particular, each revealing snippets and hints of Pedro's original, yet producing something wholly innovative and interesting. Although there are some problematic dips, like Danger Mouse's veering away from actual innovation towards a merely acceptable chin-stroking direct rehash, the album does seamlessly flow between tracks. It's only during the extended noodlings of Fourtet's closing piece that the listener might realise they've reached the end of the smooth transitions. In tension with this seamlessness is the way in which the music might just end up passing the listener by, and unless they take notice and are attentive to the often subtle manipulations of Pedro's creation and remixers, it might be felt there is nothing remarkable here.
Ultimately Pedro's original piece stands out above the rest as a suitable centre point for an album that has its missteps, yet provides with relative success some material to get your teeth into. As such, it's probably only a worthy purchase for completists or dabblers. |
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| Stuart Reeves - 6/10 |
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