|
|
 |
Dusted Reviews
Artist: Tipsy Album: Tipsy Remix Party! Label: Asphodel Review date: Nov. 24, 2002 |
|
|
|
|
Time Keeps On Blippin'
Music is time. Not just a way to kill time, wiseass. Music is rooted in time. A great remix artist, by redistributing a piece of music over a new chronological bed, can manipulate time. A damned formidable superpower.
It's hard to imagine a better subject for a cut-and-paste tribute than the neo-exotica outfit Tipsy. Imagine how much easier the Electro Lounge comp would've been if "Quiet Village" and Julie London's version of "Come On-a My House" had been available with digital timecodes. Tipsy records are, first and last, digitalia, and Tipsy tunes are simple and beat-heavy enough to be sliced, spliced and reassembled in all manners without disappearing into the ether.
A few of the DJs in this strong assembly recast the originals in new dimensions. The most immediately mindblowing thing on the record would be what those artsy Asians in Seksu Roba (or "Sex Donkey," en ingles) do with "Wig Out." The beat speeds up and slows down haphazardly. Sometimes the gears shift suddenly; more often, the beat slowly descends and then slowly inhales its hallucinogenic second wind. A flurry of electro-business insulates it from investigation. Seksu Roba’s “Wig Out” seems to go on for fifteen minutes, and one never wants it to end. Such is the superheroic magic a capable remixer can work.
Not that a remix won't work without chronological distortion. Vegas' Flaspar throws added shadow on the already eerie "Suez Motel," then decks it out in glitter and hits it with turquoise flashlights, all while maintaining the original beat. Teat Scene sits "Flying Monkey Fist" down to watch The Third Man on a heroic dose of LSD, while spinning The Residents' Our Finest Flowers as it would be heard had it come out on Ninja Tune. Easily the funkiest thing on the record.
There are mild disappointments. One perhaps expects too much from Seattle's Bran Flakes (imagine Negativland with a beat and a less topical sense of humor), but they don't manage much with the initially splendid "Kitty Takes A Ride" save adding a few bells and whistles. Meanwhile, Optiganally Yours and The High Llamas ante up new, unremarkable Optiganally Yours and High Llamas tunes (respectively) with wish-I'd-thoughta-dat Tipsy samples.
But all is forgiven by the time the Tipsy Remix Party winds down with People Like Us channeling the maliciously playful spirit of "Reverse Cowgirl" through the husks of a million dead Burger Time machines. Revision, indeed.
By Emerson Dameron
|
View all articles by Emerson Dameron