‘If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it’
is very much the view of Richard D. ‘Aphex’
James on remixing other people’s music. He declared
once that when he gets an original track he hates, he
has to do some serious tweaking to turn it into something
he likes, adding ‘sometimes I don’t even
bother, I just give them a track that has nothing to
do with the song’. It is this approach that famously
got his version of a Lemonhead track rejected by the
band’s record company, as he’d simply forgot
he’d agreed to do it and randomly picked one of
his own tracks. This doesn’t however represent
his work as a remixer in any way, and the work compiled
here proves it beyond any doubt.
Maverick of the music world if ever there was one, James
has gained as much respect for his remixes as for his
own work, explaining perhaps why he is known well beyond
the confined walls of the electronic scene, even landing
him a nomination for best male solo artist at last year’s
Brit Awards. The sound of Aphex Twin has changed enormously
since the early days, developing in new directions with
each release, but the spirit of wildness and disregard
for the rest of his contemporaries is intact. Aphex
Twin is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to
James’s work though, as he has actually released
more music under a string of pseudonyms, including Polygon
Window, AFX and Caustic Window. If his latest solo
album, Drukqs,
was released to very mixed reception, 26 Mixes For
Cash, which collects for the first time on one
album twenty-six of his remixes, is already being held
as one of the major events of the year. And listening
to this incongruous mix of genres and artists, from
guitar experimentalist Seefeel to pop sensation Saint
Etienne and from contemporary composers Gavin Bryars
and Philip Glass to German hip-hop act Die Fantaschen
Vier, it is not difficult to understand the impact of
James’s work on the entire music scene. Compiled
in no particular chronological order, each track identifies
a particular point in time in James’s career.
Seefeel’s Time To Find Me, which opens
the album, is very reminiscent of the isolationists
soundscapes of his Selected Ambient Works 2.
The Aphex remixes of Gavin Bryars’s Raising
The Titanic or Kinaesthesia’s Triachus are
closer to the darker, industrial percussive noises heard
on I Care Because You Do, whereas Jesus Jones’s
Zeros & Ones is similar in style to the
electronic ambiences of James’s Polygon Window
album Surfing
On Sine Waves. If his more recent hectic drill’n’bass
mayhem is not very much represented here (only making
discreet apparitions on Die Fantastischen Vier’s
Krieger and Philip Boa & The Voodoo Club's
Deep In Velvet, which at times appears close
to the man's own Girl/Boy Song, this album
provides a brilliant insight in what has helped Aphex
Twin become such a major artist. With a great care for
sound structures, balanced by a complete dilettante
approach to musical forms, James exercises his magic
on a variety of genres, sometimes remaining close to
the original, as on the Gentle People’s beautiful
Journey, where James sticks to the original
bossa/easy listening atmosphere, only re-organising
the track for a more suitable dance-floor feel. At other
times, James turns the original piece into something
entirely unrecognisable, as with the two Nine Inch Nails
tracks (The Beauty Of Being Numb Section B
and At The Heart Of It All), which are transformed
into rather ambient moments, challenging the noise terror
of Trent Reznor’s compositions. James admits to
never having heard the originals in the first place,
and not whishing to do so either. His version of Curve’s
Falling Tree is one of the most inspiring moments
here. With luscious, yet minimalist, soundscapes based
on Toni Halliday’s voice swirling around syncopated
beats, James managed to make this track so special that
when it was released as a limited one-side twelve inch,
it rapidly sold out and became an instant classic. The
main highlight of this collection is Philip Glass’s
symphonic version of David Bowie’s Heroes.
The song was nearly never done after James insisted
on having the original vocal mastertapes, and they turned
up only four days before the mix was due to be delivered.
Given the Aphex treatment, Heroes combines
the musical genius of three of the most important musicians
of the last fifty years to make it a stunning and powerful
piece, so close to the original, and yet so different.
To complete this eclectic collection of remixes are
two previously unreleased Aphex tracks. The first one
is a dirty acid version of his infamous Windowlicker,
while the second, the original mix of the untitled Selected
Ambient Work 2 CD1 Track 2 is given a slightly
more presentable twist, thanks to the conventional structure
adopted here, as opposed to the beat-less soundscape
of the album version.
If some Aphex fans might not be too pleased with the
release of this album as it might make the value of
their rare 12” drop by a few pounds, it will be
welcomed by the great majority of music fans, perhaps
reacquainting some who got pushed away by the man’s
more radical sound of recent years. 26 Mixes For
Cash is a magnificent record, and a reminder that
when it comes to ignoring the rules, there is no greater
offender than Aphex Twin himself.
4.9/5 |
