Review: Charles Atlas & Various Artists
"Fabricate: remixes of the album 'Worsted Weight'"
The challenge was to approach an instrumental, ambient guitar and keyboard album and not stomp on the beauty of the compositions; the result is an album that flows more as a collaboration between bands than a remix project. Almost all of the 12 mixes match the quality of the original tracks, with the opener, Sybarite's reconstruction of 'Sun With Teeth', bettering the original. With a shared interest in the tension of chiming arpeggios, Sybarite is an obvious choice. As remixes go this is way more interesting than Sybarite's (admittedly rushed) approach to Piano Magic's 'Dutch Housing.' Weaving humming, breathy vocal snippets around the clockwork guitar loop and glockenspiel, he turns the song around with a bass line and a processed trumpet. Suddenly, out of nowhere, it's an IDM Dr. Who theme. Too short by about two minutes, but brevity is the soul of wit, or something. As the lead track, this sets high expectations. The Telescopes construct a noisy soundtrack out of 'Italian Air' by injecting distorted foreign language samples and skittering spidery clicks. Pram's added gentle beats and keyboard lines to 'Strategies for Success Boxes' turn it into a lost track from 'Dark Island.' The return of Casino Vs. Japan to the Charles Atlas fold (Erik was a collaborator on the first CA album, "two more hours") sees him throwing some of his trademark churning bass lines into the space rock drift of 'The Deadest Bar.' Magnetophone's drastic reappraisal of the beautiful 'Antiphon,' previously music-box pretty, is like a Lynch-eye view of a fun fair: wide-angled, taking in the whole, the perimeter slightly out of focus, while the carousel and callipoe spin out of control. Signaldrift and Strategy turn in surprisingly dancey beat mixes of two tracks. For those already familiar with "Worsted Weight," each of these songs is a (good) surprise; for those who haven't heard the original but know the mixers, this is a necessary listen.

("fabricate" will be released to stores on June 29th, 2004 but is now available by mail order from audraglint)

Labels: charles atlas, reviews