Architecture In Helsinki - We Died They Remixed (Moshi Moshi)
UK release date: 22 January 2007
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
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.
share: 
out this week:
