Like a lemming at a cliff, or a fork-wielding child before a wall socket, I am forever destined to impulsively purchase remix collections and collaborative efforts touting my favorite artists as its contributors, despite the fact that such albums have disappointed for years. These releases promise the potential inherent in a wide spectrum of creative minds refining each other's best qualities, yet tend to instead showcase talented musicians on autopilot. Like anybody else, artists are prone to phoning it in when the stakes aren't high, and can be reluctant to let go of a great idea in the service of someone else's name-- sentiments bluntly summed up in the title of Aphex Twin's last release, 26 Mixes for Cash. Happily, Boom Bip's new offering, Corymb, is one of the few recent remix collections into which it is apparent the contributors have invested thought, effort and care, resulting in an appealing investigation of the variegated sounds surrounding Boom Bip's musical peer group.
Corymb is a combination of two EPs released in the last two years, From Left to Right and Morning and a Day. Replicating the coffee-stained packaging concept of his debut, Mr. Bip makes it clear that this is not a new album proper. It is Seed to Sun's companion disc, offering six remixes, three B-sides, and two Peel sessions. All of Boom Bip's new tracks are appealing uptempo instrumentals sharing more in common with each other than do any three songs from his schizophrenic debut. Both "From Left to Right" and "Morning and a Day" feature spacious guitars laid over bouncy synths; "In the Tree Top" begins to explore similar territory, but ends prematurely. The included Peel session versions of Seed to Sun tracks feel a little sprawling against the tight, focused sound elsewhere on this CD, but coherence is not the goal of this collection, and the new version of "Pulse All Over" makes for an epic closer.
For the most part, Boom Bip's remixers thoughtfully walk the line of augmentation vs. obliteration regarding their source material. The chilly, muzak-laden dissonance in the Boards of Canada's "Last Walk Round Mirror Lake" remix adds a sinister touch to the lo-fi guitar that closed out Seed to Sun, and recalls the Boards' 2000 single "In a Beautiful Place out in the Country". Venetian Snares' Aaron Funk coaxes a jittery, paranoid track out of "The Unthinkable", while (surprisingly) leaving the song-- featuring the voice of Buck 65-- in recognizable form. Conversely, cLOUDDEAD's deconstruction of "Closed Shoulders" jumbles Boom Bip's beat-driven original into a drone reminiscent of the instrumental passages on their self-titled debut.
Four Tet's excellent take on "Third Stream" stutters through a slew of rhythmic typewriter keys before introducing the double bass that anchors both versions of the song. Lali Puna crafts a subdued, uplifting track from the darker and more expansive original "Awaiting an Accident". Mogwai's contribution, a sparse remix/retelling of "The Use of Unacceptable Colors in Nature" is the only piece without much immediate impact. Listening to it directly in conjunction with the original, however, you can get a sense of the band's intentions as they take one of the most catchy, emotive and dense tracks from Seed to Sun and strip it down to its bones. The process gives interesting insight into what a "remix" of a mostly-electronic artist by a mostly-live band can possibly entail.
On both of his albums to date, Boom Bip has tended toward contributors whom he himself has remixed, collaborated with, or toured alongside. This is a good way to combat the syndrome of mediocrity often plaguing collections such as Corymb; after all, contractual commitment can compel a track into being, but it is personal commitment that will probably produce a good one. For those artists here who aren't beholden to Boom Bip, the care of their efforts is a telling sign of the respect this multifaceted figure has managed to establish for himself in the music world.
