Hefty have re-issued two albums by the fairly obscure jazz trombonist Phil Ranelin, and now label boss John Hughes III has obviously decided it’s time to spice things up with some remixes. The end results are as diverse as the cast of remixers suggests, as each puts a fairly heavy individual stamp on their chosen tune.
Probably most stand-offish is Morgan Geist, whose track reminds me a lot of Headhunters era Herbie Hancock, all synth bass, live sounding drums and dramatic horns. Hughes himself (under his Slicker alias) is the only remixer to actually go for vocals. His version of “For the Children” will no doubt be a bit much for some to stomach, but personally I can put the daggy lyrics aside. The way Slicker slurs and drags the singing is nice, and things get a bit more wild as the track proceeds. Slicker’s recent work with Matmos obviously rubbed off on him.
Jan Jelinek (aka Farben, Gramm) really emphasises his love for this kind of music. His track is basically a quiet hip-hop head nod, but still in his definite style. Reversing bass guitar, wandering snippets of keys and trombone… yum. As an LP there’s a fairly distinct split between each side. The A side has the more lively tracks, such as those mentioned above, as well as Prefuse 73 and Kirk Degiorgio mixes which sound pretty much as you’d expect. Then on the B side you have darker and slower numbers, such as El-P’s grinding dirge, ‘Time is Running Out’. Micha Acher and Telefon Tel Aviv push their chosen tunes into ambient territory, and the album is rounded off by the instrumental hip-hop of Beneath Autumn Sky and Nobody.
Overall, the variety of mixers means no one’s going to love every track. I really enjoy about half of them. So for the money, the vinyl is a better bet than the CD. Same tracks, and close to half the price.
