On the inside of the plain-looking three-tone Remotion jewel box, under the clear plastic that holds the CD, one can see Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton, otherwise known as Global Communication, posing for the camera. With Remotion, these two very ordinary seeming men create something similar to what a lot of people might simply call techno.
Yet there's much more to this record than that. Remotion is made up of their remixes of songs by Chapterhouse ("Delta Phase," "Epsilon Phase"), Jon Anderson ("Amor Real"), Warp 69 ("Natural High"), Reload ("Le Soleil et La Mer"), The Grid ("Rollercoaster"), and Nav Katze ("Wild Horses"). The remixes on Remotion are slow and low--just as the two think the music should be. According to their manifesto, the goal is to "create an awareness of personal emotions within people, and to stimulate a state of relaxation."
"People are starting to lose touch with themselves as individuals," Middleton explains, "through techno overdose and the whole rigmarole of '90s lifestyle. We're saying hold on, slow down and chill out a minute. Take it easy, you're a human being." So is this just chill-out music, to be played in the background at parties? Not really.
The album is very easygoing, but this is supposed to allow for a greater exploration of the human senses. Pritchard and Middleton want the listener to consider how the music affects the way they feel, and perhaps how it stimulates other senses. "People take their senses for granted--we want to make people more aware that they can feel these things," says Middleton. Which obviously means taking some individual time to let the music do its work.
Global Communication apply this concept to Remotion, delivering the relaxation one would expect, and more.
You can order directly from HitIt! Recordings (phone: 312.440.9012, fax: 312.440.9241, e-mail: hitit@aol.com). For more info on Global Communication, check out their website at [http://http2.brunel.ac.uk:8080/~cs92bbm/gc/gc.html].
