All mixed up
Essentially this is a mix CD, a collection of DJ and producer Anders Trentemoller’s favourite tunes spanning the last, almost 30, years and if you read the tracklisting, seeming quite random: from The Brian Jonestown Massacre to Suicide, The Raveonettes and A Place To Bury Strangers they can seem very disparate, but through a combination of choosing the right tracks and creating his own mixes he has put together a pretty interesting and cohesive CD with some you probably know and some you definitely won’t. Although generally the mix works fine, there are a couple of duff tracks; a prime example of which is a frankly bizarre and quite pointless mash up of Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’ which on a personal note, offended this reviewer somewhat; why mess with a perfect pop song?
Overall the album is a gentle mid tempo affair, and at first I feared it may be one of those chill out things, in fact, to a certain degree, the intent seems to be just that, however the choices have more of an Indie/electro slant, despite many of them being given a mixed up edge to them. Opening track ‘Heavy Water/I’d Rather be Sleeping’ by Grouper is lovely and dreamy with female vocals over acoustic guitar. ‘I Turn My Face to the Forest Floor’ by Gravenhurst and ‘Lifesaver’ by Emiliana Torrini are suitably moody and atmospheric follow up tracks and help to draw you further in. Danish band I Got You On Tape and their track ‘Somersault’ and American duo, Beach House with ‘Gila’ bring in a dream pop section which ends with the electro mix of The Raveonettes ‘Aly, Walk With Me’.
Much of the rest of the record is electro and synth based, with either original electro tunes or remixes; the old school and experimental ‘Back To The Burner’ from 1981 for example, sounds dated and brand new at the same time, ‘Cheree’ by Suicide is really showing its age but fits in very well with the tone of the album and ‘Devil’s Water’ by Rennie Foster is bang up to date and very beautiful. Overall an interesting mix and as these things should, it introduces you to a diverse range of music so you should get to hear some music you wouldn’t normally think of trying.