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| Track List: 1. Break In (Backini Remix) 2. 1958 (Quantic Remix) 3. Break In (Dr Rubberfunk 'Live @ No.10A' Remix) 4. 1958 (Skalpel Remix) 5. Break In (J's Remix) 6. Break Out (Skalpel Remix) 7. Low 8. Low (Reconstruction By The Amalgamation Of Soundz) 9. Break In (Paradowski Remix) 10. 1958 (Extended Version) 11. Laboratorium Running time: 47 minutes Released: 2005 |
To be honest, I suspect this is not going to be a great listen for me. Too many remixes and I have a nagging suspicion that I ended up only liking one or two Skalpel tracks despite the stable of tunes (I have the eponymous album and Konfusion too). I guess I will find out in due course. However I went through a phase of digging Ninja Tune (blame Bonobo and The Cinematic Orchestra) so picked up the odd thing here and there.
I think that I picked this up as part of the purchase of Skalpel but I really don't recall now. The tracks on 1958 Breaks are mostly reworkings of tunes from that album, with Low and Laboratorium the exceptions, thus everything is somewhat familiar in the general sense, if not the specific. The folk doing the remixes are not familiar though, except for Quantic. In truth I think Skalpel have more than a hint of the shuffle about them so I am not massively surprised to see Quantic pop up here.
The fact that the first six tracks cover two tunes (I am making the assumption here that Break Out is a reworking of Break In - that does not seem like a stretch), and there are thus only 4 different base tunes comprising the 11 on this collection is one of the main problems I have looking back at old single purchases - where your reward for buying the main track is 3 more versions of it you will never listen to. Gone were the days of meaningful B-sides. Having said that, Dr Rubberfunk's take on Break In feels sufficiently different to the Backini mix that started the listen and J's mix is a whole minute shorter so there may just be enough variation in approach to make the whole work better than feared. They may all blur into one and drawing specific distinctions may prove troublesome but so long as I am not utterly tired and bored by the end of it... no foul.
Whilst I think "inoffensive downbeat shuffle" is a fair tag, I think it applies in less accusatory manner than against The 5th Exotic - which I guess is just be a pretentious way of saying I like this more. The general tone of Skalpel's stuff does tend to be inoffensive, downtempo and low key but there is more variety and more going on to change that tone in the overlay. Not all of it works, Break Out is a bit of a mess, its variation on the Break In base not to my taste at all but I am pleasantly surprised by how 1958 Breaks maintains an interest. Low comes in to change things up at the right time though. It is a pleasantly atmospheric soundtrack piece, putting me in the mood of hardboiled film noir and nighttime shots of LA in the 40s or 50s.
The reconstruction, which follows immediately, has a very different tone simply because the percussion is highlighted more, and the tempo is higher. It gives the piece a tension that was not necessarily there in the base tune. I find myself grateful of both and listening to them back to back is no chore at all. It is as I go to try to check LastFM for how these are recorded there I notice that somehow the scrobbler has not activated for this listen, so my record of having done it (aside from this post) is incomplete. Well, no-one cares but me, and I can live with it!
It tickles me that the "extended version" of 1958 is a whole minute shorter than the other mixes on this album. It is, of course, extended in reference to the version on Skalpel which is a minute and a half shorter still. To be honest, the other mixes were better and if this is just an extra 90 seconds of the same base, it is unwarranted - but I am not about to check, and S is a very long time ahead.
I am glad as Laboratorium begins and the album is winding down but on the whole it has been a lot more enjoyable than I expected. There is no drive to excise any tracks; one or two would probably be no loss, but neither are they bad enough to demand being shown the door.
I think that I picked this up as part of the purchase of Skalpel but I really don't recall now. The tracks on 1958 Breaks are mostly reworkings of tunes from that album, with Low and Laboratorium the exceptions, thus everything is somewhat familiar in the general sense, if not the specific. The folk doing the remixes are not familiar though, except for Quantic. In truth I think Skalpel have more than a hint of the shuffle about them so I am not massively surprised to see Quantic pop up here.
The fact that the first six tracks cover two tunes (I am making the assumption here that Break Out is a reworking of Break In - that does not seem like a stretch), and there are thus only 4 different base tunes comprising the 11 on this collection is one of the main problems I have looking back at old single purchases - where your reward for buying the main track is 3 more versions of it you will never listen to. Gone were the days of meaningful B-sides. Having said that, Dr Rubberfunk's take on Break In feels sufficiently different to the Backini mix that started the listen and J's mix is a whole minute shorter so there may just be enough variation in approach to make the whole work better than feared. They may all blur into one and drawing specific distinctions may prove troublesome but so long as I am not utterly tired and bored by the end of it... no foul.
Whilst I think "inoffensive downbeat shuffle" is a fair tag, I think it applies in less accusatory manner than against The 5th Exotic - which I guess is just be a pretentious way of saying I like this more. The general tone of Skalpel's stuff does tend to be inoffensive, downtempo and low key but there is more variety and more going on to change that tone in the overlay. Not all of it works, Break Out is a bit of a mess, its variation on the Break In base not to my taste at all but I am pleasantly surprised by how 1958 Breaks maintains an interest. Low comes in to change things up at the right time though. It is a pleasantly atmospheric soundtrack piece, putting me in the mood of hardboiled film noir and nighttime shots of LA in the 40s or 50s.
The reconstruction, which follows immediately, has a very different tone simply because the percussion is highlighted more, and the tempo is higher. It gives the piece a tension that was not necessarily there in the base tune. I find myself grateful of both and listening to them back to back is no chore at all. It is as I go to try to check LastFM for how these are recorded there I notice that somehow the scrobbler has not activated for this listen, so my record of having done it (aside from this post) is incomplete. Well, no-one cares but me, and I can live with it!
It tickles me that the "extended version" of 1958 is a whole minute shorter than the other mixes on this album. It is, of course, extended in reference to the version on Skalpel which is a minute and a half shorter still. To be honest, the other mixes were better and if this is just an extra 90 seconds of the same base, it is unwarranted - but I am not about to check, and S is a very long time ahead.
I am glad as Laboratorium begins and the album is winding down but on the whole it has been a lot more enjoyable than I expected. There is no drive to excise any tracks; one or two would probably be no loss, but neither are they bad enough to demand being shown the door.
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