Lollo Rosso

Many remix albums wash out the source music. Lallo Rosso adds.'The High Llamas make incredibly dynamic and textured music. Doubts? Listen to 1995s  Giddeon Gaye , the album I think comes closest to reaching the 1966 ambitions Brian Wilson had with  Smile . Giddeon Gaye is a masterpiece of pop melody and orchestration.With such richness in all the Llama's music, the echos, hues and bleeps of remixing only highlight these colors. This album avoids traps most remix albums fall into: putting songs under a filmy treble, Listen to the endless tunnel of "Mini-Management." The sound just seems to layer, going deeper and deeper.For Lallo Rosso and the High Llamas, this craft and care is typical. Get this album

I can recall reading an interview with Kid Loco in the entertainment section of my local, bourgeois, faux-left-wing newspaper in which, in response to some incredibly banal question by the interviewer, M. Loco claimed to be constantly stoned. True or not, this smacks of a healthy dose of cynicism and irony regarding rock-journalists and newspaper types that has to this day gladdened my heart.What also delights me about Kid Loco is that he can create remixes such as that which he has contributed to this, the record in question, namely an assortment of reworkings of tunes from The High Llamas' rather tasty record Cold and Bouncy. Kid Loco's contribution here, entitled The Space Raid Remix and essentially involving a churning, spin-cycle treatment of The High Llamas' Homespin Rerun, through its keen-eyed dissection and meticulous exposé of The High Llamas' neo-retro-lounge agenda embodies everything that is bright and beautiful about Lollo Rosso. While the record at times threatens spectacular self-interment (Keigo Oymada's take on Homespin Rerun gets a little silly after a while and Stock Hausen & Walkman's remix of Three Point Scrabble never really takes off, being grounded by lack of focus coupled with a tangled, muddy bottom end), I find it to be an intriguing testament to Sean O'Hagan's archaeologically precise compositional genius, punctuated (courtesy of the fine, upstanding contributors to this disc) by moments of glorious electro-candor.

The first few listens of "Lollo Rosso" impressed me, however it wasn't until I sat down and submirsed myself in it (as opposed to having it playing in the background whilst mashing buttons on the Playstation) that I truly appreciated it fully.This is music that complements afterglow mornings -- eating omlettes on the back porch. This is the music that your mind freaks on as you shoot into a foggy abyss on the interstate.Notable highlights include the MoM remix, the Schneider TM remix and Jim O'rourke's mindblowing "Mini-Management"... make sure to pay attention to the brass and xylophone chaos in it's second half.