Digitonal immediately breathes life into “With Hands and Feet” using a rough
chord progression provided by the original and then burying it in their
signature violin and scrambling beats. It’s not unlike most of their other
work, and they don’t let us down here. Then Shitmat steps up. He offers two tracks on this collection, and both stand out. First they’re the only two to really go for something completely different, tempo-wise. Track two is a romp through Spymaster-style breaks, evil-acid house and amen-break mayhem. Shitmat’s track nine just borders on breakcore while warped blips and “bops” are flung at you like a swarm of gnats. Proem glows in his usual style – big warm tones and fairly simple beats. Paying the most attention to space, he always manages to bring light and emotion to beautifully constructed songs. By track three we’ve no obvious reference to the original. Decadnids emphasizes Funkstorung-style broken up vocals. In this case, the sweeping pads and crunchy beats wind around it. A number of the remixes include some kind of voice samples, adding a human element to the mix. At the half way mark, Safety Scissors reps with his usual fun near-pop approach to beard-scratching electronica. It bops along putting a smile on your face and making you think of sunny days. Fizzarum bops along making you think of pleather suits. If IDM ever let itself get sexy, this would be the first track to think of. It’s subtly different from the others, a little thinner perhaps, and subsequently has a pimped out feel to it. In a good way, I swear. It’s smoothed out on the R&B tip…
I had originally feared a dozen rehashes of “With Hands and Feet” but instead
get what is effectively a compilation. All the tracks are solid. An interesting group of artists to bring together in the same room, and it makes the album well worth the listen.
With Hands And Feet is out now on Multiplex Music featuring remixes by Digitonal, Shitmat, Proem, Decadnids, Safety Scissors, Fizzarum, Novel 23 and Dictaphone.
