Album Review

Bloc Party – Intimacy Remixed

• 10th May 2009

Bloc Party have always tried to maintain a position near the ever changing border between dance music and indie rock, a status only enhanced by this, their second remix album.
While last years Intimacy doesn’t have the standout songs that Silent Alarm made available for their first remix album, it does benefit from a lot of original material with an existing electronic feel. On remixing duties this time round are another eclectic group of artists and producers, ranging from rock comrades Mogwai and Filthy Dukes, to electro superstars Armand Van Helden and Hervé.

The end result is almost, dare I say it, better than the original; from an album full of up’s and down’s, the power of the remix has left only the up’s. Where much of Intimacy’s original works fell disappointingly in-between being either electronic enough to dance to, or rocky enough to nod a head to, these edits ditch the guitar pretence completely in favour of proper basslines to back up Kele’s vocal talents.

The first release from the album, Armand Van Helden’s mix of ‘Signs’, is one of several fairly straightforward electro house edits on show, with somewhat unsurprisingly the best of the bunch being Hervé’s ghetto-bass powerhouse mix of the already heavy ‘Mercrury’. The real treats however, come from some less obvious sources, usually purveyors of hard rock, Mogwai’s synth-laden, glitchy re-working of ‘Biko’ is probably the best cut on the album, while We Have Band’s dub mix of ‘Halo’ deftly cherry picks the best elements of the original.

Most dance genres are represented here, from John B’s epic trance’n’bass take on ‘Trojan Horse’ to the frantic noise-core of No Age’s ‘Better Than Heaven’ mix. But if you’re not satisfied with what’s on offer, then Bloc Party have made the constituent parts of ‘Signs’, ‘Ion Square’ and ‘Ares’ available to download, remix and upload on their website for all to hear.