Like the much-reviled live album, the 'remix' record can be a thorny issue. There are both honourable exceptions (Primal Scream's "Echo Dek", lots of dub reggae albums like Keith Hudson's wonderful "Pick A Dub") and some good ideas that never truly came off (Can's "Sacrilege") but often the remix album fulfills a similar stop-gap role as the often shabby live LP or the inevitable 'Greatest Hits' album. And since most such albums are usually now marketed with one or two EXCLUSIVE! NEW! tracks to get the poor punter to shell out a second time, they are invariably a final attempt at scraping a once rich and lucrative barrel of musical riches.
So, bearing in mind their original "Silent Alarm" is already long-established as one of THE indie guitar events of 2005, it would superficially seem the usually integrity-toting Bloc Party are offering themselves up for something of a backlash by slding a remixed, reshaped version of said 13 songs into the marketplace for us to buy a second, slightly skewed time around.
But like I said, that's purely the superficial conclusion you might jump to for in this often radically remixed form, "Silent Alarm" takes on a very different textural hue, with a variety of the band's friends and contemporaries submitting new and startling renovation jobs and making it abundantly clear that "Silent Alarm Remixed" comes to you primarily with love rather than sales graphs in mind.
Of course, the simple fact the remixers themselves are a diverse bunch draws you in early on. Yes, there are some guests you might expect would get in on the act - step forward ERROL ALKAN'S subterranean 'Calling Your Dub' version of "She's Hearing Voices", LADYTRON and their insistent, clipped and motorik version of "Like Eating Glass" and WHITEY with a sawn-off "Helicopter" that's already featured on the recent "Twisted" remixes compilation - but the good news is that even the more unlikely suspects largely acquit themselves surprisingly well.
To this end, try DAVE PIANKA'S 'Making Time' mix of "This Modern Love", where Kele's repeated vocal ("I'll pay for you anytime") is pushed forward to sound like a stalker making an obscene phone caller while the band sound strange and dislocated. DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979, meanwhile, take on Kele and co directly on "Luno" and appear to win hands down, creating the sort of fuzzed, bass-heavy delight we've been enjoying from their "You're A Woman, I'm A Man" album. Spiky US post-punkers PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES also get into the act on "Positive Tension" where they introduce glitchy electronica and again emphasise the dubbier elements of Gordon Moakes' bass playing.
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Funnily enough, though, it's arguably the two least dance-orientated tracks that provide the best moments of all. After all, this reviewer wouldn't have expected any great diversion from ENGINEERS (by night keeper of the shoegaze-y flame), but their remodelling of "Blue Light" is secretive, plangent AND jarring all at once, while the M83 remix of "The Pioneers" accentuates the strings and the loaded atmosphere and ups the track's OST aspirations.
Admittedly, it's true that several of the reworked tracks (PHONES DISCO'S house-y "Banquet" and NICK ZINNER'S "Compliments" especially) add little more than novelty value to the originals, and - however open-mindedly you approach everything here - it's also true to say that most of these 13 tracks sounded pretty damn sublime in their original form, so to drastically rework them automatically condemns these perky offspring to stand in the shadow of their more famous parents.
Still, "Silent Alarm Remixed" is by no means a waste of time and with killer new single "Two More Years" lurking purposefully in the background, Bloc Party look like remaining in the limelight for the forseaable. Good on 'em.
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