Monkey Been To Burn Town

Chronique

Monkey Been to Burntown is a brief companion piece to Animal Collective's claustrophobic 2012 full-length Centipede Hz. The EP gathers together four remixes of songs from the record, including members of Gang Gang Dance, Teengirl Fantasy, and Chicago Juke producer Traxman, giving wildly different variations on the song "Monkey Ritches" and hip-hop collective Shabazz Palaces reworking the Panda Bear-fronted track "New Town Burnout." The always expressive Brian DeGraw of Gang Gang Dance strips away multiple layers of noise, rendering his take on the track a more straightforward and spookily melodic experience, not unlike the increasingly techno-proficient GGD output of their past few albums. Shabazz Palaces transform "New Town Burnout" into a dark and foreboding landscape of heavily effected vocals and towering bass samples. While the output of all four remixes is plenty interesting, like many remix projects, Monkey Been to Burntown is lacking enough inspiration to take it past one or two spins even for the die-hard fans. More a showcase for the talents of the remixers than any kind of collaborative experiment, the uniqueness of the original songs is demoted to more of a distracting element from most of the tunes than a foundation on which to rebuild.

© Fred Thomas /TiVo