O. Children Remixed
It’s always enjoyable when a band you were convinced you wouldn’t be interested in suddenly get you all excited. This recently happened to us with O. Children, who if we are truthful we had written off 6 months ago as nothing more than a style-over-substance hype band. In fact, once we properly listened to their self-titled debut, we discovered a unique sound paying homage to goth and 80′s synth whilst also purveying massive hooks and highly inventive production. This actually shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. We happen to be privy to the fact that lead singer Tobias had a large hand in writing Girls Aloud‘s ‘Can’t Speak French’ as well as a number of other sugary chart delights.
After enjoying the album for a few weeks, we were then thrilled to be greeted by a whole LP’s worth of remixes. Whilst efforts by The Golden Filter (‘Dead Disco Dancer’), Drop The Lime and Jokers Of The Scene (both taking on ‘Ruins’) had already made their way into the blogosphere, the album brings together a total of twelve refreshed versions spanning a range of genres. Hotly tipped Canblaster turns ‘Fault Line’ into housey-garage with a hint of Kuduro and Mele‘s rework of ‘Heels’ is a similar beast, although heavier on the bass and melodic top line. Disco in various guises also makes several appearances; Jam Factory strip ‘Don’t Dig’ right down into a bongo and bassy oddity; Mugwump go heavy on the beautiful cascading synth line from ‘Heels’ and transform the track into a slowly building epic; Chad Valley‘s reimagining of the same track is similar, but with more vocals and a decidely Balearic touch. It’s left to Heartbreak to push up the BPM going hard, fast and gay on their High NRG italo version of ‘Ruins’.
We have three absolute favourites. AC Slater‘s remix of ‘Heels’ actually doesn’t tamper with the original all that much, and surprisingly leaves his trademark heavy bass to one side enitrely. Instead, he simply speeds the track up, layers on a 4×4 kick drum and let’s the majesty of the original track speak for itself. Whilst simple, it brings out a real fire in the track that was previously missing. Joe & Will Ask‘s re-work of ‘Don’t Dig’ is also sublime. Like many of their productions it straddles the boundary between electro and tech-house, but utilises Tobias’ mournful, tender vocal to propel the track forward as it gradually builds and pulses towards it’s euphoric, hands in the air crescendo.
First prize however can only be awarded to one man – Shuttle. A relative newcomer, he’s already carved out a real name for himself as someone who knows a thing or two about garage and funky. Following on from his rough and rugged take on Phoenix‘s ‘Love Like A Sunset’, his vision of ‘Fault Line’ is similarly fantastic. Like many of the re-edits on the album, Shuttle uses O. Children’s vocals cleverly to create a sense of mood and drama, contrasting them against his pacey instrumental. After 2 minutes of tough funky riddims, everything simmers down to an almost choral re-working of the main refrain from the song. As synths pulse and build underneath the melange of voices everything gets a bit unbearable, before the riddim is gloriously released once more. We’re fairly certain that at this point in clubland, everyone would throw their drink above their head, go insane and then probably collapse dead, happy at their final moments of life. Job. Done.
