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Architecture In Helsinki - We Died They Remixed (Moshi Moshi)
UK release date: 22 January 2007
4 stars
Architecture In Helsinki - We Died They Remixed

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track listing

1. Do The Whirlwind
2. It'5
3. Wishbone
4. Neverevereverdid
5. Frenchy I'm Faking
6. Tiny Paintings
7. Cemetary
8. In Case We Die
9. Do The Whirlwind
10. Need To Shout
11. Maybe You Can Owe Me
12. What's In Store
13. Rendezvous Potrero Hill
14. Like A Call

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Commissioning remixes of your latest album is a big risk, and in some cases is rightly viewed as a rather lazy sales generator. Happily such accusations fall wide of the mark when considering Australian pop octet Architecture in Helsinki. Not for them the type of remix album that sees the same names contributing run of the mill takes on established tunes. This is by complete contrast a vibrant group of interpretations that should introduce a few new names, artists that clearly have an affinity with the original material.

Certainly there's plenty to work with. With eight band members, Architecture In Helsinki's music is chock full of musical happenings. Off the wall vocals, counter melodies everywhere, quirky drum rhythms, strange instrumental effects - a challenge indeed for a remixer to take these in hand and enhance the band’s invention. What the album brings though is an array of rhythms, electronic trickery and bright, weirdly inventive sounds.

Bonkers pop moments abound, none more so than the Dat Politics remix of Frenchy I'm Faking, which sounds like a brass band taking a wrong turn and ending up at a Fatboy Slim DJ set. Neverevereverdid starts soberly enough but soon finds itself wound up in increasingly frenetic rhythms. Tiny Paintings is a tongue twister set most effectively to music by Squeak E. Clean.

Need To Shout brings a different, unhinged side in the Mocky remix, immediately countered by the dreamy guitar meanderings of Qua's take on Maybe You Can Own Me, a sweet late night moment that goes trippy towards the end. Similarly What's In Store provides a glimpse of sunlight in its hazy studio dressing courtesy of Mountains In The Sky.

Meanwhile deadpan dance/pop is offered by the 33Hz remix of It'5, a feelgood guitar loop coupled with the vocoded chorus, while Do The Whirlwind gets two outings, the second of which from Hot Chip glides smoothly across the dancefloor.

A stimulating set of tracks then, deserving of an album to themselves and brightly uplifting.


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