Remixed

text

Ponga's excellent first album was one of more impressive of last year's bumper crop of records records addressing the collision of jazz/improv and samplers/electronica. NYC-downtowners Bobby Previte and Wayne Horvitz making such a record was always going to be a mouthwatering prospect, and the results lived up to the concept. As if that record wasn't enough, Loosegroove Records commissioned and released a bunch of remixes too. While it would be difficult for them to improve upon the originals, they certainly take them into a different direction, perhaps offering them up to different crowds. With some irony though, this remix album is ushered in by a untouched Ponga original, Horvitz's bubbling lush synth splashes sounding very like Andy Barlow's work with Lamb. The first mixes - by Spacetime Continuum, Capsule 150, and Even Schiller - are nice enough, choosing a very laid-back downtempo feel, but they almost seem intent on dragging the music away from its originally dark resting place, into a lighter brighter world. Which is cool - they're all very beat-oriented, richly seductive pieces. But then along comes the tagteam of the Stereo Vacuum and Amon Tobin mixes, their jungle MO pulling the music back down to the murky depths of the intensely brutal and malevolent electric jazz which set Ponga apart. The Tobin "Mosh" mix of "Pick Up The Pieces Of Saturn" must be one of the most exhilirating musical moments to emerge from last year, stripping down to constituent parts: rumbling bass, hazy hornlines, awkward alien synth riffs, and disjointed funk drumming, and then sprays his almost unbearably intense drum programming all over it. It's the only mix to real take on the original and improve it. I'm not downplaying any of the other remixers here - the Ponga album was so good, the point being the interplay between "live" and "studio" - and these are all fine pieces of music in their own right, though coming from a different angle. Other standout mixes include Fila Brazilia, who contribute a distinctive jazzy workout, lending Horvitz's Rhodes sound a playful, funky insouciance; and Master Cylinder's time-stretched reductio ad absurdium of "Naugahide". Firing Bullets and Element 115 contribute funked-up, stop-start rhythmic grooves, before another Ponga original, "Come As You Went", bookends the album beautifully. After such a credible, exciting burst onto the scene, Ponga's next steps will be keenly anticipated.