Compilation and remix releases are normally the bane of any music reviewer's life. Themed compilations, if done badly, can reek of general public-kowtowing, band-wagon-leaping, money-spinning exercises whilst record label compilations can often feel like an attempt to sell a back office full of filler by throwing in an unreleased demo track from a big name or two. And remix releases? Not bad if you don't mind hearing the tracks that you know and love stripped, gutted and spewed back out with only the chorus line remaining to give any indication of its original form. It's fortunate then that "Missing Deadlines", a "best-of" by the nu-gaze movement's remixer par excellence, is apparently put together not out of commercial but rather musical interest (at least according to the press release) by the man himself. Surprisingly, although perhaps most well-known for his gutting and spewing (ok, remixing), this is the first full-length remix release from Schnauss, who also finds time to throw out solo albums of shimmery ambience and play keyboards for British indie bands Longview and Engineers.
The choice of bands remixed is reasonably interesting, although it's dominated by the dream-pop world that Schnauss (heavily influenced by Slowdrive, Chapterhouse and My Bloody Valentine) himself tends to inhabit, with tracks from A Sunny Day In Glasgow, Asobi Seksu, Mojave 3 and Rachel Goswell featuring. There is space left over, however, for jazz-tinged electronica (I'm Not A Gun), minimalist ambient musings (aus) and even a bit neo-classical piano and strings from Lunz (Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Tim Story). According to Schnauss, these tracks were plucked from eight years of remixing because they represent the "best mixes from a musical point of view". In reality, what this means is that you get fourteen tracks of Ulrich Schnauss doing his ambient shoegaze thing - waves upon waves upon waves of digitised sound, ethereal treated vocals and the odd beat - with very little let-up.
Schnauss' solo work is reasonable enough background music, straddling the line between IDM (much as I hate the term) and (admittedly anaemic on occasions) dream-pop which works best when you're not looking for definable tunes. A remix compilation should prevent such an occurrence, but that is to discount Ulrich Schnauss' ability to turn everything he touches into his own music.
Howling Bells' "Setting Sun" in its original form is widescreen, Bond-esque indie rock, peppered with shoegaze elements and rippling waves of sound. The remix takes the rippling waves and the chorus and slams them through what sounds less like a wall of sound and more like a sheet of plate glass, with the shattered pieces threatening to drown out the climactic vocals. Madrid's "Out To Sea", all bubbling euphoric electro-ambience, is quickly stripped of its throbbing bassline and stepped-up last quarter urgency, before being welded to a light electro-acoustic strumming and strung out for an extra two minutes. The original's vocals become even more ethereal than they were in the original, no mean feat and something for which Schnauss deserves a form of stupefied respect. It's safe to say that dynamism isn't really Schnauss' strong-point, but at the same time, he's never been known for urgent, block-rocking beats and adrenaline-fuelled riffing. This slightly relaxed progress slows to an almost comatose daze with Schnauss teaming up with Japanese ambient artist aus for "Halo", which sees the original's languorous pace and blissed-out atmosphere multiplied by n and receive a warm coating of synths to boot. It's pleasant, ebb-and-flow stuff, perfect for dozing on the beach, but not much more. Almost the sole exception on the album is Schnauss' remix of Rachel Goswell's post-Slowdrive "Coastline", which (unfortunately) smoothes down the original's sharper edges but (fortunately) retains the basic dynamic beat. It remains a high-point simply because it cuts loose from the reverb-heavy plodding that dominates the album.
|
Elsewhere, shoegaze and nu-gaze stalwarts receive the remixer's attention, with mixed results. Yuki Chikudate's shimmeringly sweet Japanese vocals on Asobi Seksu's "Strawberries" certainly lend themselves to being pulled apart and thrown back into the mix, even if the drum beat is plucked straight from another remix (Longview's "Will You Wait Here") and the last thirty seconds feature a slightly shocking blast of jaw-rattling, bass-heavy reverb that feels a touch out of place. A Sunny Day In Glasgow also see their "Ghost In The Graveyard" given the treatment, this time in a tidy-up job that pulls the vocals out of the jarring, jagged guitar licks and sets it down on crisp drumbeat and a soft bed of synths. It's true though that when the waves of reverb recede at the 1.42 mark, an audible sigh of relief may escape your lips, even if the American group's song is only the second to feature on the compilation. By his take on Dragon's "Remembrance", which sees the Joy Division-esque vocals buried under a swirling peasouper-like fog, you may have tired a wee bit of the perpetual audio haze. The album cover is in fact almost a perfect representation of the album contents: a rather plain landscape photograph, dominated by an overcast, pastel-coloured sky, with a vague, blurry tinge of rainbow-like colour just about perceptible to the viewer. The presence of an empty motorway seems ironic, because much of the album's content is ever-so-slightly pedestrian.
Whilst compilations can often be disjointed, bitty affairs, the fact that Schnauss' music is often about the general mood and reappearing themes works in this album's favour. Your ears may notice over the course of the seventy minutes a familiar melody or vocal line, but what this is really about is Ulrich Schnauss and all the twinkly orchestration that he can do. It has been argued that Schnauss is at his best as a remix artist, when he uses the track as a structure on which to base his (it could be said) occasionally structureless brand of music. But what you have here, once again, is Schnauss being Schnauss: the tracks either entirely abandon the original, bar an odd vocal here and a few melody lines there, or they do what the original track did anyway (or indeed worse, the cardinal sin when it comes to remixes). In any case, you're going to have to really like the Schnauss brand to get any enjoyment from this. The best advice here is to have a listen to a few of his remixes online before you invest and, if what you hear gets you going (if Schnauss' music can indeed have such an effect), then go ahead and purchase this album. You probably won't be disappointed.
Ulrich Schnauss on MySpace
Ulrich Schnauss' "Missing Deadlines - Selected Remixes" on Rocket Girl
|
