Source material for a remix can be like salt in a cake mix: technically speaking, one has to have the first in order to construct the second, but the fun lies in the way you hide its taste, and I would argue that a "faithful remix" (or a salty cake) defeats the point. So, chefs, DJs and other people who like to make messes have run amok over the past couple of decades turning what might have been nothing more than small, lifeless pea into Haydn's Creation. Many times, this transformation is done for practical reasons-- say, extending a groove for the dancefloor, or adding a little punch for the radio-- though I've always been more interested in the mixture made for reasons purely "artistic," culinary or otherwise.
Over time, this recreation-- probably a notch removed from a "remix," if only because the most interesting stuff involves more than just editing and jacking with levels-- has evolved from fringe experiment to full-grown musical cuisine. Early musique concrete pioneers Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry might have envisioned a world where everyday sound or radio broadcasts might be turned into avant-garde art via sampling and electronic amplification, but I doubt they could have foreseen the po-mo hurricane that is modern sound design: Otomo Yoshihide uses his "group" Ground Zero to "remix" UK experimentalists Cassiber's live record; Christian Marclay cuts up Elliot Sharp's guitar in real time and nobody comes out unscathed; John Oswald forges massive documents of alien sound out of music already heard by anyone with ears; Ekkehard Ehlers, Fennesz and Keith Whitman play their own stuff, cycle it through a laptop, and produce sounds at once familiar and of singular idiosyncrasy. Nothing is sacred. Or, music is god, and cannibals make the best sacrifices.
Merzbow's 2002 release Amlux is the main course for better than twenty very hungry young dicers on Ikebana's meta-menu. According to the liners, artists were supposed to use the original album's music as an element in a new composition, rather than piece together a traditional remix. Furthermore, despite Masami Akita's rep as devastating noise dominatrix, none of the new tunes were to be necessarily bound to his extreme aesthetic. I can imagine the participants feeling either fantastic glee at the prospect of being given free rein in the Merzbow shop, or a bit of paranoia at approaching the same material as twenty other artists and having to come up with something just as interesting.
The coolest thing about Ikebana is that you don't even really need to know anything about Merzbow or "noise" to listen to it. There are a few u nruly moments that seem pages out of some forgotten cassette-only Masami Akita (Merzbow) release, but in general, much of this release could pass for an experimental IDM sampler. Alec Empire's raging "Digital Hardcore Mix" comes on like the soundtrack to a Terminator sequel that didn't suck, with wildly distorted drum tracks kicking the shit out of all the extraneous debris (hint: tonality = debris) in their way. With a decent stereo, the bassline could do some serious damage. Similarly, Luke Vibert's (performing under his Plug alias) excellent untitled futuro drum-n-bass slaps an engorged, fuzzy repeating synth bass under jagged glitch stutter beat. Some of the tempo changes and oddly timed samples remind me of the more spastic moments on Hrvatski's first record-- or possibly of the record I wish Squarepusher would make.
Elsewhere, artists you might think would provide the electro-splice goods deliver something else entirely. Mouse on Mars' "Superstar" features no beats whatsoever, and in truth, sounds almost exactly like a Merzbow original, albeit a piece wherein he doesn't so much opt for deafening displays of violent florescence as disorientating sound design. Cornelius' untitled piece starts out innocently enough, with sampled jungle birds and rain, but gradually mutates into the pitter-patter of static electricity and industrial clang. Nobukazu Takemura's "Assembler Mix" takes the static idea and gallops with it, giving you hundreds of variations on the same grating implosion for what seems an eternity. Now that's entertainment! However, it's also pretty reverential, and in scheme of Ikebana seems kind of quaint. For reference, see Makoto Kawabata's amazing/nauseating "Revolved Jane", which shows you don't have to bother living up to a legacy if you're perfectly capable of vandalizing it with a chorus of grotesque psych-locusts.
Ikebana isn't exactly the smoothest listen, and not just because it comes from Merzbow music. DJ Spooky's trip-hop treatment doesn't really sound like it belongs on the same album as the MoM or Takemura tracks, and Negativland's highly annoying "An Actual Attack" doesn't sound like anything I need in my collection at all. Still, as samplers go, it's consistently "challenging"-- or better yet, there lots of sounds you'll want to come back to after being assaulted the first time. And you want to know a secret? I never heard the original Amlux music, and can vouch for this stuff working well enough on its own. So, sit down, fork in place, and dig in-- you like buffet, right?
