themselves the no music of aiffe...the no music. remixed

I must admit that I've never heard of themselves before, although, being signed to anticon, I naturally expected them to be playfully inventive, occasionally pretentious, and fearful of capital letters. Which they are.

I guess I won't get a chance to fully appreciate their sound on a remix album, but the opener, terror fabulous, makes a good case for delving into their back catalogue. It's a high-quality new composition which mixes a helium choir with slick Snoop Dogg-style analogue loops and the frenetic delivery of Outkast, whilst still being as commercially viable as thongs for children. Unfortunately, they then set about 'de-mixing' hat set for butler, which I assume means removing any aspect that might be deemed enjoyable. Still, matth and controler skilfully mix the high pitched gibbering of mouthful into lazy, Shadow-esque trip hop, without either element seeming incongruous in the slightest.

hrvatski chooses to straddle the line where drum and bass meets drill and bass on good people, which contains at least three other genres, all of which merge seamlessly and all of which he imbues with the same level of well-crafted emotiveness. why? follows this tour-de-force with yet another reason why I can be regularly spotted gushing unashamedly about his output in virtually every review on No Ripcord (in this case, the acoustic-led sunrise soundtrack of poison pit). Hood choose to interrupt such bliss with a frenzied assault on livetrap, which approximates both Outkast's Bombs Over Baghdad and the sensation of being attacked by a gang of hammer-wielding maniacs (I'm guessing, here).

alias, the leading light of...erm...goth hop...has been guilty of huge discrepancies in the quality control department on recent releases, but his mix of only child explosion finds him on top form; he crosses Aphex' Ambient Works 2 with Massive Attack and The Beta Band to mesmerising effect, and unwittingly creates a perfect introduction to grapedope's bulbous, bass-heavy treatment of dr. moonorgun please. darkskydemo starts off as a straight-up, MTV-friendly Busta Rhymes rip-off, before fog seemingly puts it all through a blender, a la Squarepusher. why?'s cLOUDEAD compatriot odd nosdam mixes ping-pong with a simple 80s synth soundtrack, and, bizarrely, the result makes you wonder why nobody tried it before. The video of his track, you devil, is apparently featured alongside why?'s as an additional feature on the CD too, although I'll be damned if I can find either of them. One of the highlights of the no music. remixed is left until the end, when the notwist re-work out in the open into a piece of math-rock positivism so lovely that it makes you remember why post-rock actually exists in the first place. Note to self: try to listen to CDs you're reviewing all the way through from now on (just kidding, Dave).

To people who value consistency and structure in music (you know, the people who say stuff like 'it really works as an album, rather than just a collection of songs', whilst fiddling with their wispy, pubic hair beard), the no music. remixed will sound messy, at best. To others, i.e. those who enjoy eclecticism and inventiveness, the album will please, puzzle and infuriate in equal measures. The anticon all-stars aren't precious about the songs, and wilfully deconstruct and destroy themselves' material with abandon, which is an ethic that is evident in any good remix work. the no music. re-mixed is like a multi-colour scrapbook, with one idea every 20 seconds; this makes for an occasionally patchy album, but equally it means that if one idea doesn't grab you, then the chances are that the next one will. That many of these ideas were thought up by other people (namely their flow, which is generally lifted wholesale from Outkast) doesn't matter too much, but it occasionally means that unique characteristics of their sound are either absent or get submerged within the mix. Still, if you think Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was the hip hop album of 2003 (which it was, if you don't count why?), you'll find plenty here to enjoy.