Eccodek – Remixtasy
Reviewed by Sadie O., 11/2/11
Global trance-funk remixes from Eccodek’s previous albums (all in our collection) – mostly with African vocals/rhythms/influences, but also some Middle Eastern and South Asian – and lots of electronica.
1. 5:55 **pretty, trance-y chimes, slow and very mellow. Gets a nice beat that builds and retreats, but still rather devotional and spacey. Lovely, Arabesque female vocals.
2. 4:46 ****electronic woobles and echoes, funky upbeat Afro-Latin riddim, danceable and highly electronified. Great bass and keyboard grunts.
3. 5:02 **relaxed keyboard chords and echoes, dischordant electronic whistles and boobles. Gets a funky midtempo Afro-funk beat after 40 seconds. Smooth jazz sax (that actually isn’t annoying, somehow.)
4. 5:02 ****bongos! And plinky stringed instruments. Upbeat and a bit uptempo Malian chanting, complex hand drumming, with electronic gronches in the background. Gets gronchier as it goes along.
5. 5:40 ***sitar drone, echo-laden female vocals, violins, trance-y as heck. Slow but funky beat comes in a minute along, bass a few seconds later. Trance-dance – Shivatastic!
6. 6:04 ***slow, low chimes, flutes – you are getting very, very sleepy… Almost a minute along, butterflies and forms of life appear. Hey! It’s a funky bass line, echo-laden African chanting, then uptempo Macossa groove. Didn’t see that coming!
7. 5:08 ****slow, slinky, echo-y, dubsteppy, minimalist but with a nice dub-Reggae beat, bits of low vocals. Trippy.
8. 7:04 *****talking drums with echo – what a cool sound! Then big cinematic (if you’re in Bollywood) chords. Slinky dub Afro/Reggae riddim. Bit of spaghetti western sound, African vocals, harp. Relaxed as hell, but quite amazing.
9. 5:09 **fade in sitar drone and electronics, uptempo funky percussion but relaxed chimes and harp groove. Female Arabesque vocals. Pretty trance-y.
10. 4:50 ****chimes and growing weebles. A minute along, a slow, blatty shuffle with raindrops and pretty south Asian female vocals. Poits! Almost transcendental, apart from the Atari game noises…
11. 4:18 ***upbeat funky percussion, echo-laden South Asian male vocals, lots of interesting sounds, pretty much all with echo or buzz.
12. 4:11 *****uptempo percussion and sirens, complex Afro-funk beat, squirly flutes, adds elements and energy. Fun!
13. 3:51 **tones and thumps, dischordant bits, strangeness and charm. Glitchy bit of beat comes in only after well over a minute. Not at all undisturbing. Did I mention the insects?
14. 4:43 **more insects with echoes and bongos. Metal noises, too fast bits of club beat, woobles… Definitely disturbing.