Isis "'Oceanic' Remixes/Reinterpretations Volume II" LP
[Robotic Empire]
The second in this killer series opens with Tim Hecker taking on "Carry", opening with a rumbling, noisy sort of wall of eerily melodic textures that drone along and rise and fall in volume. This approach continues throughout, becoming more stripped down and fluid for the bulk of the track. As the title might suggest, "Like I Will Love Her Forever? (Fuckin' Die!!!)" - another take on "Carry" - by DJ Speedranch with additional contributions from Guilty Connector, is without a doubt the most out there of these remixes, opening with a sample of a child reading a Humpty Dumpty rhyme before a few chaotic blasts of drums and vocals lead into melodic clean guitars and female singing with some glitchy effects applied to keep it from being too tangible. The vocals definitely sound incredibly menacing, and towards the end things kick in full blast with dominant shouting over guitars, bass, and drums, only minimally cutup for jarring effect. The Speedranch quirkiness is something that I find a little irritating or out of sorts here as it applies to the series as a whole, but it still works in its own individual manner. Side B consists of "Hym" by JK Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, Techno Animal, etc.), starting off with a slow riff of heavy melody and droning vocals, not unlike some of Godflesh's own work, which is interesting. Of course this doesn't sound like a Godflesh track per se, but those characteristics and structural elements are certainly a bit more evident here. Things get louder and more stuttered at the end, with quickly looped chords and harsher vocals that sort of break up the flow, but the staccato sort of chord progression created against the shouting is very much similar to something Godflesh might have done circa "Selfless" or later, just more rhythmically broken up. Afterwards soft acoustic guitars, thick bass notes, and more subtle melodies bounce around to end the composition. As the series dictates the record comes on clear vinyl in a simple sleeve with high contrast metallic silver/white imagery. The backside of the sleeve has a circle die-cut out of it to reveal the tracklist on the label of the record itself (each record in the series has a different colored label, which is basically the only differentiation aside from the tracklist itself). I was honestly expecting something a bit more powerful from side B being such an immense longtime fan of Broadrick's work, but his is certainly no shabby remix... it covers an intense range of dynamic shifts and definitely stands out (the closing passages are certainly amazing). I have to give the most credit to Tim Hecker on this volume of the series, though. Another very cool 12" offering up some amazingly well crafted interpretations. Only 2,500 exist and my guess is that they're sold out, I had to buy mine from a distro. (8/10)
Running time - 26:00 (approximately), Tracks: 3
[Notable tracks: all three are nice, but Tim Hecker takes it]
Robotic Empire - http://www.roboticempire.com

This review has been displayed 2917 times.