You’d better lock that shit down
I am not the target audience for remixes.
I freely admit that. There’s just something about them that generally irks me. It can most likely be chalked up to hearing too many rote, bland, predictable cut-and-paste techno overdubs masquerading as remixes. When punk bands like Face To Face have their songs techno-fied for the Mortal Kombat soundtrack there’s no real reason or need to listen to it; it’s clearly just novelty for novelty’s sake.
Rah Rah may be a different beast, however. The band’s anything-goes attitude and upbeat, undeniably energetic spirit makes them just the kind of band that would happily open themselves up to a full-fleged remix experiment and expect the results to be nothing but fantastic.
Call it my remix bias but that’s expecting too much. There are definitely plenty of tracks that offer genuine, thorough re-imaginings here, even if others prove to be less effective. That is, of course, being examined through the lens of comparison, measuring the original number against the final product.
Look at “Henry” for example. The peppy, energetic single with a brilliant video is one of the stand-out tracks on the Breaking Hearts full-length. The remix by Toronto’s Rich Kidd entirely strips away the galloping drums, replacing them with a loping beat and synthesized hand claps that create a relaxed slow-jam feel. Some cooing background vocals and the band’s urging for the titular character to “lock that shit down” are repurposed from the brief bridge, becoming a near-constant refrain that takes on a sultry new life when interwoven with some intimate lounge piano. Kidd himself drops in for a guest verse, adding some pretty adorable hip hop into the mix, referencing his lunch and his “tummy crunches” before “Canada is running this bitch.” It’s really adorable, just like Rah Rah’s original material! The remix is a complete 180 degree turn but without sacrificing the spirit of the original — it’s exactly what I was hoping for.
On the other side of the spectrum is “Fuck NAFTA.” Produced by a fellow Reginan (”beatsmith” Merky Waters) the track leaves Marshall Burns’ vocals more or less untouched, along with some of the guitar parts. The drums and bass are swapped out, replaced with similarly-paced but altered drums and beefier bass. Some DJ scratching is overdubbed as well but on the whole it’s not a drastic shift. Still, it’s impactful; the song seems less successful as a low-tempo jam than it did in the original, almost making it sound like Burns is on valium. The energy and anger of the song is damaged if not lost entirely.
It is nice to see Rah Rah include some of their local pals in the process. The always-sharp Kitchen Party gives a nice 8-bit keyboard feel to the Breaking Hearts‘ frantic opener “Arrows,” taking away the frenetic pace but retaining the energy. He also lends “Towers” (from The Sailors EP) an early-pop feel thanks to a hand-clap heavy reworking that puts the focus on Burns’ vocal melody and the accompanying harmony. The syth instrumentation is decidedly upbeat despite the song’s beautiful minor-key tone. Kitchen Party’s contribution also includes a simply gorgeous take on “Chimneys” (another Sailors cut) that offers a variety of sampled and synthesized percussion that doesn’t overwhelm the lovely piano samples that provide the song’s biggest melodic element, blending and contrasting with swirling atmospheric tones.
The biggest disappointment for me is probably Cadence Weapon’s take on the sprightly and charming “What About Love.” Rollie Pemberton’s reworking has quite literally the opposite feel of the original, which was a short blast of absolute adorable-ness, a playfully piano- and guitar-driven number with uncertain, fragile, chirping vocals opining on love in what could be a series of Facebook status updates. But Cadence Weapon’s take is dark, plodding, bleak, almost dangerous-sounding, at least until a single synth tone comes in and repeats over and over and over. The vocals are spare and pushed deep in the mix, creating a cold and unfeeling number from source material that is anything but.
In the end, Rahmixes is a remix album. Anyone who has heard a remix album before likely has a pretty fair expectation of what they’re going to get. That fact makes reviewing the record seem futile at best; there’s a vast number of people who will have the literal opposite reaction to most of or perhaps all of the music here. I have a feeling the Kitchen Party tracks stand out for me because they keep the vocal elements of the original tracks consistent; there’s no chopping up the lyrics, no parsing out a single phrase and repeating it ad nauseum. The songs’ lyrical intent remains intact and it helps the song feel whole, as though there’s a deeper meaning than just inspiring a dance floor booty-quake. But for someone who comes to this album in the hopes that they’ll find exactly that will be inversely disappointed.
So obviously it’s hard to offer a fair assessment of the larger product here. If we’re being honest this will never be the first Rah Rah album I reach for — and there is absolutely no way the band intends for it to be. If that was the case their original songs would be comprised entirely of 808s and Casios instead of being crafted using a variety of more-traditional instruments.
As I mentioned earlier, remixes of rock and roll songs are almost universally exercises in curiosity (and novelty songs are almost never someone’s favourite songs). In the end I’m a big fan of Rah Rah’s original material so if this helps them gain more fans I’m all for it. At the very least it’s worth a listen for other fans to see how they react to the altered tracks. But I’ll still be waiting for the next “proper” record.
Rah Rah - Henry: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Rah Rah - Henry (Rich Kidd remix): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Rah Rah - Fuck NAFTA: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Rah Rah - Fuck NAFTA (Merky Waters remix): Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadYou can find Rahmixes through iTunes or, eventually I’m sure, through Hidden Pony Records.
