Reviewing remix albums is a difficult task when you are in no way familiar with the source material. The easiest path is to assess the album as it’s own separate entity. Only Mountain: The Remixes sees 16 different artists and producers reworking tracks from producer Take’s 2010 LP Only Mountain, displaying a bright tracklist of fresh remixes from a talented cast of beat makers.
Kicking off with Take’s own remix of “Begin End Begin” the general mood of proceedings is set: clever production never needs to be messed up by complicated remixing, and each artist twists each piece very neatly into shiny new sonic orbs. Mono/Poly’s version of “Quartz for Amber” gets all mysterious, almost like the subterranean levels of Super Mario 2. Tokimonsta’s (who herself recently released the excellent Creature Dreams EP) gentle reimagining of “Horizontal Figuration” is a standout, seeing squelching claps holding time over a pulsing kick and minimal bass lines, allowing space for the track to breathe and flow on its own accord. “Neon Beams” is shuffled and screwed by Dibiase, stuttering and glitching like a circuit bent Speak & Spell. Free The Robots slow things right down on “Before You Think” shifting the beat into 1/4 speed drudging, lightly peppering gliding leads over its short length. “Implosion” gets the workover by Shigeto, and is subjected to that wonky off-time FlyLo beat work that is favoured by many of the artists on display here. The Clonius ratchet up the pace with their take on “Neon Beams bouncing notes off one another like rubber balls in a closed room. Low Limit readjusts “Paper Garden” with sliding synth notes and sidechained strings. Om Unit move towards dubstep territory on “Juniper” with ominous tones rumbling around a stomping beat. Closing with Faulty DI’s remixed “Begin End Begin” a surprising house tone begins to develop. This would have been nice if brought in a little earlier in the playlist, just to break things up a bit, but is nonetheless a pleasant breath of fresh air to close with.
Remix albums are good places to find new artists, and I’ve certainly found a few here. My main criticism would be that towards this back end of the release, things start to get a touch repetitive; wonky beats and gliding synths can only be interesting for so long. However, Only Mountain: The Remixes provides just enough push and pull to hold interest, without getting boring or overexcited, which is a line that can be difficult to tread, but is walked in confidence here. Fresh and Bright.
Nick Giles
