Gordon Bennett. Weren't we just doing this 'slew of remixes' malarkey with DFA 1979'S new single? There's only so much a man can take, you know. Really.
There again, maybe the idea of sitting through an interminable array of remixes may not be such a bad thing, especially when THE KILLS - taken straight up without ice or chaser - can be a singularly unexciting concoction.
The regular version of "No Wow" reminds us of this tawdry fact. It's their usual bog-standard, thrumming-drum-machine-meets-sawn-off-garage-rock cocktail and frankly I'd rather do like I did at sixth form and nip off to the swamp behind the gym for a fag than have to keep revisiting this stuff. Yeah, I grant you it starts out well enough with Alison (sorry, I don't buy all this Hotel and VV schtick) muttering "You're gonna have to step over my dead body before you walk out that door", but really what is she going to do? Heave the drum machine's flight case at us or something?
So, ultimately you're quite happy when the remixers start queuing up. Bearing in mind his own work has recently been hung, drawn and quartered in fine style by the likes of Josh Homme and Erol Alkan, one would expect Death From Above 1979's Jesse F.Keeler to be a bit tasty with the knobs, but actually his minimal, glitchy effort pales pretty quickly when pitted against TIGA'S groovebound, seek'n'destroy reworking of "The Good Ones" and the Backstage Sluts' spacy, weird and potent take of the same track.
|
To finish off, the Chicken Lips Remix of "No Wow" is a bouncy, skanky affair which again shows imagination and verve and arguably plays the deciding hand in bumping this review up by a star. By the time it's wound down, though, my already frayed nerves are beginning to give up the ghost. But nevertheless: thanks to Tiga and Chicken Lips and - to a lesser extent Backstage Sluts - this one gets a reluctant thumbs up.
Note to aspiring bands and press officers, though: Please, no more remixes for a good fortnight or so at least. There really IS only so much a man can stand, you know. Yeah, REALLY.
|
