Words by Nik Mercer
It’s been noted to the point where the hyperbolic horse has been beaten so badly it’s only a mutilated pile of unrecognizable flesh, blood, and bone, but it’s worth mentioning once again: remix albums―and, more specifically, dance remixes for rock bands―serve an exceptionally odd purpose in this world. DJ/producers remixing DJ/producers is a whole different game, and one that revolves around the notion of cleverly crafting tweaked renditions of dance tracks for specific club environs. A downtempo boogie might be amped up a few BPM’s and morphed into a late-night come-down house track; a techno cut may be dubbed out to yield a more Balearic ambiance; and so on. So, there always seems to be an underlying deceit that substantiates the creation of a rock band remix: since the original was, most likely, never intended to be spun on two turntables at 3 AM in Ibiza, the new dance-ready rendering is either an obvious marketing gimmick (buy our album because this DJ made it fun!) or a half-assed attempt at covering up the fact that said band is so crummy they really needed a skilled producer to give them a facelift.
There are, however, rare instances of this not being the case, and currently, the band that is consistently proving the aforementioned generalization wrong is Los Angeles’ industrial noise-rock quartet HEALTH, who are releasing their second remix album, DISCO2 on Lovepump United on June 22. Bridging the gap between DJ-approved, dance floor-ready tracks and hipster-approved, grimy shoebox venue-ready singles has been relatively easy for the Angelenos, though, as, from the onset, they’ve set out to actively embrace such a dichotomy. After all, before any LP or original single dropped, HEALTH was best known for Crystal Castles‘ Bizarro World disco remix of “Crimewave.” (Arguably, this glitchy boogie established both groups’ careers.) When HEALTH‘s eponymous debut full-length hit stores, it became even clearer that the four were destined to blur the lines between the two, seemingly disparate music worlds: the LP was spastic noise rock, sure, but its rhythm section foundations were almost entirely centered around 4/4 time signatures, sharp tom- and snare-heavy patterns, and oozing bass lines. DJ/producers couldn’t help but nab the stems and put their own personal spin on the tunes.
LP2―GET COLOR―represented an even more focused step towards straight-up dance music. A sort of Trent Reznor-esque industrial groove flowed through every second of the long-player, which led many to assume DISCO2 was inevitable. The new remix collection is compelling for a number of reasons: Firstly, it begins with an original jam that’s probably HEALTH‘s most synthetic song yet; secondly, the whole thing congeals around a loose theme of blissed-out summer BBQ boombox boogies as opposed to bombastic, face-melting fist-pumpers (a welcome progression); and thirdly, it surprisingly has the aesthetic of an original full-length by a single artist. CFCF‘s Balearic bounce ebbs sublimely into Javelin‘s sparkley synth jam; SALEM‘s gothic choral arrangement of “IN VIOLET” melts perfectly into the uptempo cosmic swirl that is Blondes‘ remix of “NICE GIRLS”; and, overall, the 12 tracks sound perfectly placed and deserving of being on the album.
Remixes―and remix albums―work best, regardless of genre, when they’re produced for an honest purpose, and one would be hard-pressed to assert DISCO2 is lacking in one. The compilation is, more than anything, a woozier daytime re-imagining of an abrasive, noisey, and industrial band’s nighttime music that otherwise resides in the shadows or under strobes, immersed by smoke machine fog and the stench of stale sweat. DISCO2 represents the other side of the coin that is HEALTH.
