The Remix War

Album review

Remix albums, by nature, are tricky in that even more than an artist's work itself, it can be instantly dated -- today's in-demand remixer could be yesterday's news, just like that, and then some. In the case of rock bands letting other groups use their material, it's even trickier. Though Pitchshifter beat groups like Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit to the punch when it came to a remix collection, this 1994 collection is so of-its-time it can barely be seen as anything other than nostalgia now. Pitchshifter itself remixed four of the seven tracks, so as extensions of the group's pre-existing approach there's little to comment on that's not already familiar -- rasped and roared post-grindcore vocals, industrial/metal beats and riffs and so forth. Pitchshifter are good at what they do, though, so anyone needing some sort of charge along those lines will be satisfied, with the standout being the flanged-vocal chaos of "NCM." The concluding remix of "To Die is Gain" is the one exception from the standard, taking a drum-heavy approach that eschews the guitars. As for the outside efforts, Therapy?'s take on "Diable" tones down and stretches out the introduction into a fairly gothed-out crawl, before switching into an okay-enough blast of hardcore techno-via-metal. Gunshot's remix of "Triad" takes a '70s funk approach, rhythm-wise, making the contrast between the horn bursts and wah-wah and J.S. Clayden's vocal bark pretty amusing in its own way (though not as much as George Clinton's Nitzer Ebb remix). Biohazard's own remix of "Triad" goes a similar route while cutting back even further, down to a crackling breakbeat, and adding some nicely threatening -- though much calmer -- vocals of its own.
© Ned Raggett /TiVo