(11.14.05) A remix record, Funckarma’s Refurbished One collects the scattered work that Funckarma have done over the last few years. Remix collections are sometimes hit-or-miss affairs, more a cross-sampling of recent musical trends than a cohesive summation of an artist’s worldview. Funckarma, however, are one of those remixers who are brought in to re-image a track into the Funckarma mold, giving it the spin and toss that says: “Simply minimal and effervesecent.”
Don & Roel Funcken have a number of pseudonyms, aliases for varying styles of electronic music, and it is a testament to the variety of their efforts that I can say that while the Funckarma material leaves me somewhat cold, their work as Quench delights me continuously (Shadow Huntaz and Cane being the other two names under which they record and,
frankly, I’ll be talking out my ass if I try to pretend familiarity with that work). So, naturally, I put in Refurbished One with a bit of trepidation. Surprisingly, the Funckarma influence is there (oh, yes), but only as a means of creating space within the existing music.
Funkstörung’s “Fat Camp Feva” is brought down to quarter speed, Tes’ fly-boy rap is made so lazy that it becomes a lugubrious rap, caught in the molasses of slumbering bass line, the gasping sound of a weak trumpet and the somewhat indolent scratch of an old record. If the original was filled with whipcrack of crystal meth, Funckarma’s version has OD’ed on dope smoke. Their remix of Duuster’s “Duuster & Donker” retains Duuster’s crackling beats but adds a layer of wandering tones and a choking, burping echo of sound as if keyboard samples were pretending to be tropical birds outside the studio glass. Speedy J’s “Hayfever” is remixed into a gamboling whirlwind of electronic melodies rushing and tumbling over one another, while Ra-x’s “Korrupted by Power” is filled with gurgling rhythms and sumptuous aquatic notes. Mr. Projectile’s “Love Here” becomes an exercise in echoes and rainfall, as melodies and skittering electronics create an atmosphere of glittering static and low-flying mists of water vapor.
There are a number of artists whom I have no familiarity with but that doesn’t detract from my enjoyment of what the Funcken brothers have done here. The tracks of Refurbished One are unified by their efforts to dig beneath the programming and the textured nuances of the originals to find the warm echoes and the glittering facets of the work which have heretofore been unrecognized. Naturally, a release entitled “One” implies a “Two” or more and, delighted by what I’ve heard, I’m looking forward to more of their remix work. Excellent stuff.
Refurbished One is out now on n5md.
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