Jamie Stewart's Xiu Xiu project is not one without direction, I'll give him that - and this latest release is a clever skit on the now very tired remix album. Instead of the usual haphazard mix of tired old half-finished reworks from a troupe of cronies, Stewart seems to have collected genuinely like minded souls to not only remix his tracks, but also cover them. The covers idea allows him to get more interesting musicians on board who might not be so likely to do a 'proper' remix, such as Devendra Banhart and Marissa Nadler, and the inclusion of a full disc of remixes too allows him to get that obsession out of his system too. So far so good then, it's just a shame that the collection of tracks (18 in all!) isn't all that inspiring. it's not that there aren't moments; Kid 606's cover of 'Fabulous Muscles' is frankly awesome, Why?'s skit on 'The Wig Master' makes me yearn for more and Grouper's ridiculously good rework of 'Tonite & Today' has to be heard to be believed, but overall it leaves me a little cold. I think the merciless collision of styles threatens to overwhelm the coherence of the disc as a whole in the end - this is one of those albums where it might be worth ripping the best tracks and re-compiling it yourself. Now I was going to end the review with some kind of joke about the cd being 'mixed', get it? Yeah it was awful wasn't it, I'm glad I changed my mind.
View more
Available To Order (Estimated Shipping between 1-3 Working Days)
This item is to the best of our knowledge available to us from the supplier and should ship to you within the time-frame indicated. If there are any unforeseen issues with availability we will notify you immediately
Jamie Stewart's Xiu Xiu project is not one without direction, I'll give him that - and this latest release is a clever skit on the now very tired remix album. Instead of the usual haphazard mix of tired old half-finished reworks from a troupe of cronies, Stewart seems to have collected genuinely like minded souls to not only remix his tracks, but also cover them. The covers idea allows him to get more interesting musicians on board who might not be so likely to do a 'proper' remix, such as Devendra Banhart and Marissa Nadler, and the inclusion of a full disc of remixes too allows him to get that obsession out of his system too. So far so good then, it's just a shame that the collection of tracks (18 in all!) isn't all that inspiring. it's not that there aren't moments; Kid 606's cover of 'Fabulous Muscles' is frankly awesome, Why?'s skit on 'The Wig Master' makes me yearn for more and Grouper's ridiculously good rework of 'Tonite & Today' has to be heard to be believed, but overall it leaves me a little cold. I think the merciless collision of styles threatens to overwhelm the coherence of the disc as a whole in the end - this is one of those albums where it might be worth ripping the best tracks and re-compiling it yourself. Now I was going to end the review with some kind of joke about the cd being 'mixed', get it? Yeah it was awful wasn't it, I'm glad I changed my mind.