My Best Remixes - Joakim

Part of what makes a great remixer is eclectic tastes -- the more comfortable you are working with a wide spectrum of raw material, the more likely it is that you'll produce results that are worth listening to for more than ten minutes at a time. In this regard, producer and Tigersushi label-head Joakim is in a league of his own: this collection of his remixes includes original tracks by such disparate artists as Cut Copy, Late of the Pier, Max Berlin, and Lionel Hampton -- yes, that Lionel Hampton, the jazz vibraphone legend whose "Vibromatic" is rendered funkily unrecognizable here. At times you'll hear strong elements of '80s synth pop in these mixes: DJ Mehdi's "Pocket Piano" strongly evokes the Human League, while Cut Copy's herky-jerky "Hearts on Fire" sounds like a New Order outtake. Elsewhere, you get big guitars, big beats, and a vocoder ("Always Too Late" by Annie), twisted house (Zombie Zombie's "Driving This Road Until Death Sets You Free"), and moments of surprising prettiness (Clashing Egos' "Aming Nebere"). One example of the latter comes at the very end of the program, in a hidden track by Max Berlin titled "Elle et Moi", which features spoken French vocals and a gently lovely musical setting. Not everything here is perfect, but even the less-successful experiments are consistently interesting. ~ Rick Anderson, All Music Guide