REVIEW: Pizzicato Five, Happy End of You (Matador)
- Robin Lapid
Why do a remix album? I sometimes find this especially hard to fathom when it concerns artists like Pizzicato Five, whose pastiche of grooves, beats, and samples make them a sort of self-contained remix band, dubbing and looping pop as a Warhol-ian artform. On this remix album, artists ranging from Dimitri From Paris to the High Llamas' Sean O'Hagan to St. Etienne stamp their signature sound on tracks from P5's Happy End of the World release, with varying degrees of success and excess.
Each of the 13 tracks pretty much sounds like it could be a b-side of the artists that remixed them. The Automator's remix of "Love's Theme" starts the album off on a high note. The cool scratches and sparse beats jell with 60's-style Japanese pop, punctuating its Dr. Octagon vibe with Maki Nomiya's airy vocals and a spacey bass beat. From there, the remixes hit peaks and valleys. The tracks dip into the deconstructive sound of club-style grooves - the heavy house and jungle of DJ Dara's "Porno 3003" remix renders the original track barely discernible in a moderately enlightening way, while Dimitri from Paris's "old skool flava" remix of "Contact" makes me feel as if I'm dancing at Manchester's Hacienda club back when New Order was just hitting its stride.
The High Llama's Sean O'Hagan turns "My Baby Portable Player Sound" into a mellow keyboard game of Stereolab-y bleeps and burbles. Oval refracts "Happy Ending" into an ambient prism of hollowed-out chimes followed by an accumulation of organized chaotic noise, all strung together by a P5 pop refrain, "da da dum dum..." And Saint Etienne's track sounds like, well, Saint Etienne -- they turn in a summery, groove-pop version of "Love's Theme" that climaxes with funky guitar lines.
It's highly possible that I will end up hearing this album filtered through a sound system at my local record shop or vintage clothing store. Happy End of You isn't completely essential unless you're a hardcore fan of Pizzicato 5 or a completist of any of the featured artists, but it would make for a more enjoyable shopping experience.
Featured Artists: The Automator; 808 State; Daddy-O; DJ Dara; Gus Gus; Sean O'Hagan; Oval; John Oswald; St. Etienne; Momus; The Shooter; Dimitri From Paris; Daniel Miller & Gareth Jones.
