Van She - Ze Vemixes

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  • Remix albums are now a well-established genre. Everyone from Boys Noize to Bloc Party have released touched-up albums, while the likes of SebastiAn, Soulwax and Joakim have brought out compilations showcasing their own remixing abilities. On their own effort, Ze Vemixes, Van She have taken a slightly different tact, remixing the bulk of their debut album themselves, or, more specifically, under the Van She Tech guise which consists of guitarist Michael Di Francesco and vocalist Nick Routledge. If Van She the band is a fresh-faced, polite boy who you'd be happy to take home to mum, then Van She Tech is a perverted little monster who sneaks out his bedroom window after dark for a night of murky mayhem on the dancefloor. And so the original V—the band's spacey, electro-pop debut from 2008, has been turned into a dance floor-orientated collection of "vemixes." It has the compressed, crunchy synths that have trademarked Van She Tech's previous production work as well as elements of house and techno. And while there may not be the eclectic production mastery of someone like Joakim, the duo venture on enough tangents to keep you interested. The new take on "Changes," for example, uses cut-up vocals to great effect, while the guitar riff on "It Could Be the Same" has been replaced by funky bleeps and piano stabs. The remix of "Cat & The Eye" begins with crunchy distortion that wouldn't be out of place in a steel melting plant before progressing into something more dark and atmospheric. There's a new track too—"Techno City," which name checks a Cybotron classic. The original, of course, is regarded as an important evolutionary piece in the progression of Detroit techno, and thus neatly symbolises the direction Van She Tech seem to be taking—namely, away from trendy electro and towards a darker, more industrial sound. That said, they haven't completely forgotten their roots: The brilliant remix of "Sex City" (renamed "Sexual City") is straight out of the electro class of 2007. Indeed, the robotic vocals sound like they could have been lifted wholesale from the Boys Noize remix to Justice's "Phantom." Despite the overall quality of Ze Vemixes, the idea of a band remixing their own album comes across as a tad self-indulgent. This package would have benefited by the inclusion of artists that remixed songs from V—such as the G.L.O.V.E.S. remix to "Changes" or Strip Steve's excellent version of "Strangers." Meanwhile the ambient version of "Virgin Suicides" tacked onto the end—although easy on the ears after the audio assault of the rest of the album—has the slight whiff of filler.
  • Tracklist
      01. Changes (Van She Tech Remix) 02. Talkin' (Van She Tech Remix) 03. Strangers (Ze Vemixes Remix) 04. It Could Be the Same (Van She Tech Remix) 05. Sexual City (Van She Tech Remix) 06. The Cat & The Eye (Ze Vemixes Remix) 07. Techno Music (Van She Tech Remix) 08. Virgin Suicide (Acoustic Mix)
RA