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Ida, "Shhh..."
This release can be somewhat confusing. It's not quite a full-lengthalbum of new stuff, it features altered versions of some older songs, acouple unreleased things and quite a lot of versions of their songs"Shrug" and "Shotgun" from 'Will You Find Me'.
It's really more of acollaborative work with Warn Defever without actually sitting down andworking directly with Warn, himself. According to the website, Warn wasgiven a bunch of tapes and free reign to do what he wanted. The resultis this release, which could very well be considered somewhat of a"remix album". All too commonly, strategically uncommon matches aremade for a band on their almost proverbial "remix album" contractualobligation thingy. From Low to Kings of Convenience, a number ofquieter bands have had dance beats tossed into their albums in order toaccomplish this goal. I'm happy to report to Ida listeners leary ofthis threat that there are no beefy electronic techno dance mixeswithin. Instead, the album opens up with a gorgeous unreleased bit ofstringed instruments playing simply titled "Strings" and continues onwith a very pretty song I'm not familiar with, the title track of thealbum. After that the alternate versions begin. Warn Defever (His Nameis Alive) and Sasha Frere-Jones (Ui) each have a go at Shotgun andShrug (respectively) while Trina Shoemaker does each, but the songsdon't really stray far from the originals, leaving all the vocals inand merely adding and subtracting a couple instruments here and there.While it is respectable, the different versions aren't all thatinteresting until the dub mix of "Shrug" and the serene droning stringsof the instrumental, (yet unfamiliar) "Shoreline (Truxton Park mix)"and the abrasive noise of The Stooges remix of "Shrug." I do enjoy thisrelease, but in the end I'm left with more questions: "What's themeaning behind the Stooges remix?" "Why only remix two songs a coupletimes each?" "Where did these new songs come from?" The reward,however, is something to hold me over until the next full-lengthrelease, and it's doing an awesome job of that.
It's really more of acollaborative work with Warn Defever without actually sitting down andworking directly with Warn, himself. According to the website, Warn wasgiven a bunch of tapes and free reign to do what he wanted. The resultis this release, which could very well be considered somewhat of a"remix album". All too commonly, strategically uncommon matches aremade for a band on their almost proverbial "remix album" contractualobligation thingy. From Low to Kings of Convenience, a number ofquieter bands have had dance beats tossed into their albums in order toaccomplish this goal. I'm happy to report to Ida listeners leary ofthis threat that there are no beefy electronic techno dance mixeswithin. Instead, the album opens up with a gorgeous unreleased bit ofstringed instruments playing simply titled "Strings" and continues onwith a very pretty song I'm not familiar with, the title track of thealbum. After that the alternate versions begin. Warn Defever (His Nameis Alive) and Sasha Frere-Jones (Ui) each have a go at Shotgun andShrug (respectively) while Trina Shoemaker does each, but the songsdon't really stray far from the originals, leaving all the vocals inand merely adding and subtracting a couple instruments here and there.While it is respectable, the different versions aren't all thatinteresting until the dub mix of "Shrug" and the serene droning stringsof the instrumental, (yet unfamiliar) "Shoreline (Truxton Park mix)"and the abrasive noise of The Stooges remix of "Shrug." I do enjoy thisrelease, but in the end I'm left with more questions: "What's themeaning behind the Stooges remix?" "Why only remix two songs a coupletimes each?" "Where did these new songs come from?" The reward,however, is something to hold me over until the next full-lengthrelease, and it's doing an awesome job of that.
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