:PAPERCUTZ: Do Outro Lado Do Espelho (Lylac Ambient Reworks) (Audiobulb Records)

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Posted on May 12th 2010 01:00 am

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:Papercutz: Do Outro Lado Do Espelho (Lylac Ambient Reworks)

:PAPERCUTZ
Do Outro Lado Do Espelho (Lylac Ambient Reworks)
AB029
Audiobulb Records 2010
12 Tracks. 57mins53secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: DLD

Originally the project of Porto-based musician Bruno Miguel Pereira Pinto, :Papercutz soon expanded to incorporate vocalist Melissa Veras, with other musicians joining the pair for live performances. Released two years ago on Canadian imprint Apegenine, Lylac, the band’s first album, bridged the gap between stark atmospheric electronica and elegant contemporary pop music to create a superb hybrid, served by Pinto’s delicate blend of acoustic instrumentation, electronic textures and beats on one side, and by Veras’s softly ethereal vocal tones, occasionally reminiscent of Anneli Drecker, on the other. The album was followed by a single, Ultravioleta, which featured remixes by The Sight Below, Neotropic, Spandex and Signer. This is partly what encouraged Pinto to let other musicians give their own vision of his work. The resulting collection of remixes, published on Audiobulb, features reworks by Helios, Simon Scott, Taylor Deupree, He Can Jog, Autistici, Astroboy, Chris Bissonnette, Jasper TX,  Rameses III, Emanuele Errante and Feu Follet.

Expectedly, the tone is somewhat subdued and, occasionally on the verge of reflective here, but, despite involving artists from very different horizons, this album is extremely consistent all the way through, and actually sits comfortably next to Lylac by complementing it rather well. Indeed, while each artist interprets a given song in their own way, bringing their own universe into that of :Papercutz, they all do so very respectfully of the original work by retaining much of the layered aspect of songs. These are however for the most part radical reworkings, which see soundscapes developed into lush new ambient forms or retract into spacious drones, while the voice is in turn wrapped in textures and treated as just another sound source, or isolated as primary organic element to increase its impact.

On The Gift Of Self, Simon Scott focuses on expanding just a fraction of guitar tones into a rising drone around which circles distant voices, while Taylor Deupree turns the somewhat stripped down Do Outro Lado Do Espelho into a rich and vivid soundtrack above which Veras’s voice appears as in suspension. He Can Jog brings things back down to earth for a moment with a stabbing distorted electric guitar on A Way To Emerge, but soon the tone softens again and allows for another dreamy space to develop, away from the marimbas and percussions of the original. Perhaps the most striking remixes are found toward the end, first with the breathy Astroboy version of Lost Boys, which retains the rhythmic pattern of the Lylac version, but dips it into a much hazier sound setting, while he pushes the voice slightly deeper in the mix, then with Jasper TX’s magical take on Broken Treasure. Building on a single looped chord progression by slowly adding delicate piano lines, then burying them under layers of sound, Dag Rosenqvist delivers here a truly magnificent version.

Remix projects can be difficult to carry through without impacting in one way or another on the original versions, especially when an entire album is concerned. In the case of :Papercutz, the great respect with which each of the contributors treat Bruno Miguel Pereira Pinto’s delicate arrangements and Melissa Veras’s soft interpretation ensures that both original and remixed versions can exist side by side, complement each other which retaining their own identity.

4.5/5

:Papercutz | :Papercutz (MySpace) | Audiobuld Records
Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: DLD

Lylac (He­lios Remix) from Audiobulb on Vimeo.

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