MIDIval PunditZ Remixed

Album review

There's a basic problem with the idea of remixing material from the MIDIval PunditZ catalog -- how are you going to make it any funkier? The answer, in some cases and for some of the remix artists featured here, is not to make it funkier at all, but just to make it weirder: Tapan's mix of "Ali" throws in a thudding house beat and isolates other instrumental parts in an echoing, dubwise style, leaving the keening vocals to wail over the top of the fractured soundscape; Bandish takes a roughly similar approach to "Night," turning it into a ten-minute-plus exploration of experimental house-dub. Jayant's breakbeat mix of "136" is texturally lovely but not terribly interesting, and the same is true of the "Jalebee Bass for Breakfast Mix" of "Raanjahn." But Audialize's gloomy-yet-jittery techno mix of "Dark Age" and Son Kite's equally dark take on "Raanjahn" are both excellent, and Karsh Kale performs his usual polyrhythmic magic on his own remix of "Dark Age." It's quite rare that the house mixes would turn out to be the highlights on an album like this, but that seems to be the case this time. Recommended.

© Rick Anderson /TiVo