I haven't seen much discussion out side of a brief
mention for each of these so i thought i'd
review each since i've been playing them for
the past few weeks.
The Deseo Remixes:
Any excuse for new material from FSOL, Global Comm &
Transglobal Underground is fine with me, even if it
does have vocals by Jon Anderson on it. Although
I liked "Spiritual High" a long time ago, jon's
vocals are a bit annoying on this one. Is he
trying to give this disc a world flavor by
singing in his own contrived monosyllabic
language (as well as english)? oh well, enough
cynicism.
Deep Forest remixes: Deep floresta- this one's kind a boring,
too much Jon for my taste & the remix is rather unexceptional,
no where near as good as Deep forest's remix of Apollo 440
or Youssou N'dour.Speed Deep- this one's a little better,
standard house/trance mix, samples of Jon aren't as obtrusive
on this one even though there's probably about just as many
as the other mix. not quite as unexceptional as the other mix,
but forgettable just the same.
Transglobal Underground remixes: Intercity 125 mix-spacey dub house
mix. makes minimal use of vocals (and the most palatable ones too,
these might not be Jon's though, just the background singers).
Variation in the song is slight & might wear on those who
don't like a steady housebeat. Master Mute vs. The ToneE
Programme mix-some of the same spacey synths as their first
mix, but the beat is slowwed down, intro is nice, but then...
AAAAHHHH! Jon's vocals start up. Not to worry, there's
the Master Mute Instrumental mix which is very similar,
but without the vocals.
FSOL Deseo Reconstruction: This one's nice. starts off with
some chirping bird noises and the world vocal sample. Slowly
moves into a groove more similar to FSOL's Lifeform's single
than the ISDN stuff. Too bad there's only one FSOL mix.
Global communication remixes: Amor Real-nice ethereal synths
with some booming background synths which provide the beat.
song gradually builds and mixes in flute & string sounds
& some of jon's voice (in echoe) which actually workds
extremely well (no cringing during this one). Bless This-
this one starts off with vocals (Jon's?) some of which
sound like female vocals (perhaps background vocals).
a heartbeat-like beat steps in & the vocals continue
to echoe back and forth, another excellent remix.
Overall: skip the deep forest & transglobal underground mixes
put on either global comm or FSOL remix. Still haven't
figured out exactly what's being remixed here, what jon
anderson's part in this project is, whether this is
an album, ep or single; and just exactly what "deseo" is;
but i am happy to get more FSOL & GC.
Going Global Series (UK) I saw this on vinyl but didn't
check to see if the format was the same. This is
also on 10XCD singles. However since most are 13-16
minutes, this all could have fit onto 3 CDs, though
the fold out packaging with individual slots for each
CD is quite interesting (though it takes up more
space than i would like). Another not so wise move was
to put all the remixes of the same song on the
same CD-no chance of mixing dub's w/ vocal versions
here. Tracks:
Rachid Taha vs. Justin Robertson: while i didn't
care much for the original release of this (in the US
the original JR remixes were released on ffrr 12").
These 2 mixes are significantly better. The prankster
guitar thud opens with vocals and mixes in bongos,
then the thumping house beat and assorted other noises,
much more variation than the original 12" makes it more
interesting. lionrock orchestra dub is sans beat, just
congos & JR's trademark horn sound with some minimal
synth & guitar sound and some vocals from the
original not on any of the other mixes.
rachid taha vs. JR: I know that voila voila was released
as a single, but i don't remember if this one (indie)
was. the game is afoot mix is standard JR fare and gets
monotonous after all the sounds have been put into the mix.
flute is nice, including the vocals may have helped
give it more variety. the next two mixes are even
more monotous than the first.
cheb kaled vs. development corp. (chebba): this was
also released (in the US on Island). mixes here are
man city mix, man city instr., overworld dub mix.
standard dance floor fare here, ok for a while
but gets boring after a few minutes.
mory kante vs. oliver lieb, resistance d.: ambush vocal mix
is harthouse trance (lite) with some funky guitar & bongos(?)
over it. chunky. beat stops and vocals step in and the
beat steps in again. Interesting dance floor fare. instrumental
mix & ambush vocal edit are more of the same. resistance
d. mixes (vocal/dub) are slower and distort the vocals
more (actually the looping of vocals on this gets monotonous
as the same 3 words are repeated throughout the mix).
cheb khaled vs. dom. t, dmitri, al stone: al stone gives this
a standard hip hop beat and keeps the full vocals intact.
dom. t gives it an annoying house mix, very repetitive on
the beat, vocals &synths. the casbah mixes (dmitri?) are
the best, various drum noises and some guitar work
gives it nice variety.
cheb khaled vs. fluke (kebou): this is probably my favorite of
the 10, the slow mix (92 bpm) is very dubby, much like fluke's
remix of Little Axe, with nice spacey noises & enough vocals
to give a feel for the original. the 132 bpm mix is very
much like "Slid" w/ only a trace of the vocals in the background.
the xpensive mix is fluke doing jungle w/ cheb's voice
thrown in here and there.
alex maden vs. dread zone (bakala): this one's nice to.
first mix is dub house disco with an indian flavor. second
mix is more dub, less disco and fewer vocals, last mix is
a hip hop (lite?) mix with dark synths washing over the mix
and a very familiar (musical) sample which escapes me at
the moment (could be the orb).
sakan (timefax):no one remixing here. too bad. this one's
pretty much a throwaway. a droning synth, a house beat,
no vocals. blaah.
mory kante vs. hardfloor (yeke yeke): you've heard this one
already. vocal mix is a ffloor-filling trance choon.
rachid taha vs. atlas (d'abord d'abaord): nice hip hop
ditty here, minimal on the vocals, nice guitar rhythm,
though there could be more variation on a theme here.