Bloc Party – Silent Alarm Remixed

So here we are. That point where any other band begins to scrape the bottom of its commercial barrel. The dreaded, and usually dreadful, remix project. Not with Bloc Party though. Their debut album Silent Alarm looks set to be one of the albums of this year and this re-vision has hit the shelves in order to satisfy the clamour for more.

I’m usually cynical about the legions of ‘Next Big Things’ and media-darlings forced on us by the music industry. Thankfully Bloc Party have managed to escape this curse by living up to the hype and also having hordes of devoted fans rather than fickle followers in search of the latest trend: A recent pub conversation resulted in me being collared by a fan for half an hour telling me that repeatedly that “no-one really understands how f***ing good they are!”. This is a typical reaction from anyone who has a copy of Silent Alarm or has been lucky enough to see them live.

Rather than a repetitive collection of B-sides or countless remixes of the same song, Silent Alarm Remixed strips the original bare and rebuilds it in its entirety.

Remixes are courtesy of Ladytron, Four Tet and Death From Above 1979. There’s a variety of different remix styles in operation but it seems to gel together as whole, managing to maintain the essence of the original album in the process. Think of it as electro meets Kid A‘s more accessible younger brother.

If you’re new to the party then I suggest you head straight for the original Silent Alarm before plumping for this companion piece. This is a sublime collection with more of a hit rate than the usual remix album. It doesn’t feel like a commercial cash-in. It’s more like a starter for the next course.

Let’s hope the next album makes more people realise just how f***ing good they are.