Thug, for those of you not in the know, is Adelaide-based Tim Koch, whose reminiscent melodies, slightly wistful ambience, retro-electro bloopiness, and fractured-but-smooth rhythms issued in Isolated Rhythm Chock, his first full-length for the Aural Industries label. Unashamedly influenced by British label Warp’s ambient-techno of the early 90s, particularly the Artificial Intelligence imprint, the album was released in 1999 to accolades internationally, with names such as Autechre and Boards of Canada being invoked as sonic reference points in reviews. It is no surprise, then, to find this prodigiously accomplished debut album being plundered to provide the source material for a state-of-the-art exercise in remix aesthetics.
Thug::remixed contains 15 tracks in all, not all of which are entirely successful for this listener. The concept of the album works well, however, with a number of outstanding remixes which preserve something of the spirit of the originals whilst adding a spark of something different.
First off, Swedish duo, Boulderdash’s atmospheric take on “123Heart” stretches a keyboard fragment into a cloud of warped ambience, underpinning it with a crunchy clicky hip-hop styled backbeat, queasy noises, and reflective marimba. Finland’s Lackluster turns in a short piece consonant with the mood of the original “Quasipede”. His spin is to largely transpose the keyboard motifs from Thug’s piece, soft-pedal the drums and weave a resonant squelchy synth bass figure through the proceedings, creating a successful retro ambient-techno cameo. Super Science cleverly transforms “Rhino Song” into a mid-tempo psychedelic dance-pop hybrid with snatches of dreamy vocals, electro squiggles, and dubby bass; an original rendering with a trace of a playful smile on its face.
Next the track ordering achieves something of a coup. Sydney’s Telefonica offer a remix of “Just Blue” which boldly ditches beats to create a beautifully spatial piece of ambient drift, floating on warm keyboard chord sustains. The blissed-out mood is then brutally but effectively fractured by Sydney experimentalist Pimmon, who here eschews the outer limits of his customary avant-garde abstraction to give us a thuggish experimental techno take on “123Heart”, driven by a hypnotic Minimalist keyboard loop, thudding Suicide-esque drums and lacerating hi-hat. A winner!
This sequence is difficult to follow, and indeed somewhere around the middle onwards, the disc flags a bit, though enthusiasts of the retro-electro sound will thrill to the Southern Outpost Basschip mix, which largely preserves the haunting melancholic chord sequence of “Let Us Chip”, underpinning it with a classic 808 Planet Rock-style backbeat and squelchy percussive sounds. Trip hop devotees will also be drawn in by Octopus Inc.’s creepily atmospheric remix of “Leaving Obatem5”, which lopes along in slo-mo Karmacoma-esque fashion, and breaks down into electro-noise entropy, before emerging into noir-ish resolution. Best of the rest is Melbourne’s Sense, who gives an object lesson in remixing, taking recognisable elements from “123Heart”, and making them his own through his signature weaving synth lines, deep bass pulse, and questing, loose almost jazz fusion-inflected drum programming; a stand-out!
There you have it, then. A worthwhile addition to the collection of fans of beat-driven ambient and idm stylings of recent years, thug::remixed’s brazen eclecticism works as an enjoyable guided tour of the diversity of sub-genres of current electronica.
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Tracklist ::
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Related posts ::
Tim Koch :: Please Don't Tell Me That's Your Volvo (Aural Industries)
Sense :: Goodbye Mr. Henderson (Aural Industries, CD)
Tim Koch :: Please Don't Tell me that's Your Remix (CD, Aural Industries)
Tim Koch :: Retrospective Reviews (Aural Industries/n5MD/DeFocus)
Tevo Howard :: The Drapes in the Living Room EP (Thug)
