This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Album Reviews
Album Review: Au Revoir Simone – Night Light (Moshi Moshi Records)
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 15 June 2010
Brooklyn-based three piece electronic group Au Revoir Simone released their third album – ‘Still Night, Still Light’ – in 2009 to strong reviews. Before getting started on their next studio release, they’ve worked on a remix album of long player three, commissioning several important names in the alternative community to rework the original tracks from the album and put their own individual stamp on them.
In several instances, the changes are so radical as to be totally unrecognisable. Take the remix of ‘Another Likely Story’ by Neon Indian, who eschews the glacial, slow burning heart of the original, retaining only the vocals and using them to create a track that would have sat nicely in his own previous record, ‘Psychic Chasms’. It’s far more urgent and assertive than the original.
Jens Lekman completely changes the pace of ‘Shadows’ to something close to funereal, whilst adding the kind of musical touches to it that listeners of his previous albums would expect; string and vocal samples aplenty. It’s a similar story on the remix of ‘All Or Nothing’ by Jensen Sportag, a duo of producers from Nashville. Whereas Au Revoir Simone underpinned their original with organs, Jensen Sportag throw the entire kitchen sink at the track, using horns with carefree abandon, as well as plenty of percussion.
‘Still Night, Still Light’ was a very impressive album in its own right. Although it didn’t reinvent the wheel in terms of contemporary electronic pop, it had few rivals in terms of songwriting and arrangement. The band aren’t precious about their own work, though. They clearly see the value of the remix as a positive, creative device rather than just a means of throwing out an extra track.
And by and large, the results are successful. We have a record that’s been reworked beyond all comprehension, barely displaying any similarities to its sister album, which is always a good sign that remixing has worked. KW
Buy from iTunes
Buy from Amazon
