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The remix has always had two sides to its story. On
the one are those who've used it as a cash cow, a form
of art where established dance producers can exploit
their reputation in the name of a quick buck.
Thankfully such practices that were rife in the mid
1990s are largely confined to the second hand bargain
bins, and those still standing see the form as an
artistic challenge, a chance to impose their own
musical personalities on the music of others, without
the need to resort to formula.
Keiran Hebden belongs firmly in the latter
camp. A prolific remixer, he has an individual
approach that transforms the music he works on into
tracks that are recognizably his. In particular he has
an individual flair with percussion, not just
inventive or oddball rhythms, but florid drum fills
that surround the melodic material, rarely getting in
its way.
Of course Hebden explores this improvisatory style
further in his sessions with Steve Reid, but he
largely uses it with economy in his remixes. Now and
then he overdoes it, but the most successful work
secures a tension between the relative stillness of
the pitched sounds he retains against the more
frenetic activity of the drums. Thom Yorke
finds himself thus cast, with the remix of
Radiohead's Skttrbrain setting his long, drawn
out vocal against a slow moving chorale, with
splintered breakbeats all around.
Within this loose template there is still plenty of
room for Hebden to operate. The remix of His Name
Is Alive's One Year is notably empty, a barely
perceptible melody atop dislocated drum beats.
Contrast that with the bluster of Madvillain's
rap in Great Day, a full accompaniment giving the
track huge energy. Meanwhile Bonobo's Pick Up
moves forward in stately fashion with a DJ
Shadow-type rhythm, while the early remix of
Rothko's Roads Become Rivers offers a more
sombre mood.
Domino's generous package surveys not only the pick
of Four Tet's remixes over the past seven years, but
craftily adds a second disc of Hebden remixed by
others, in fact every remix he has commissioned. This
includes an excellent reworking of the flexible As
Serious As Your Life from Jay Dee, but even
given the variety on show the four remixes of A Joy
are a little too much to take in one sitting.
That's a minor criticism, however, as this is an
absorbing lesson in how to respectfully treat other
people's work while at the same time offering your own
perspective. In Hebden's case this means branching out
sufficiently far and wide to avoid potentially routine
cover versions with ease. He's an excellent
technician, continually inventive and surprising, and
Remixes offers an excellent companion to his studio
albums and sessions.
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