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Front Line Assembly vs. Die Krupps >
The Remix Wars - Strike 2
Off-Beat SPV 068-43192 [Ger] (1996)
Tracklist:
I. Die Krupps remixed by Front Line Assembly
01. Metalmorphosis (Shifting Mutation Mix) (4:19)
02. The Last Flood (Blood Stream-Mix) (5:35)
03. Scent (Pheromone-Mix) (4:52)
II. Front Line Assembly remixed by Die Krupps
04. Neologic Spasm (Dislocated Mix) (3:52)
05. Barcode (Re-Assembled Mix) (4:10)
06. Transparent Species (Clustered Mix) (6:19)
Total Running Time: 29 min 13 sec
Credits:
DIE KRUPPS Tracks: Scent/Music: Engler, Altus Lyrics: Engler. The Last Flood/ Music: Engler, Altus Lyrics: Dörper Metalmorphosis/ Music: Engler, Altux Lyrics: Dörper All tracks remixed by Bill Leeb & Rhys Fulber at The Armoury engineered by Greg Reely:
FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY Tracks: All songs written by Bill Leeb & Rhys Fulber Engineered and mixed by Greg Reely Tracks Programmed at Cryogenic All tracks remixed at Atom H Studios, Düsseldorf by Jürgen Engler and Chris Lietz. Guitars & keyboards by Jürgen Engler. Drum-programming & engineering by Chris Lietz.
Info text in CD booklet:
The idea behind the "Remix Wars" Series is very simple but innovative:
Two different groups or projects fight each other using Samplers, Mixing Consoles, Keyboards and Creativity as their weapons.
The second part features two of the most succesful industrial pioneers: die krupps and Front Line Assembly.
Review
This, the second in the Remix War series, sees Canada's Front Line Assembly pitted against Germany's Die Krupps. Who wins and loses, and exactly what it is that defines winning and losing, remains a mystery, but this time around there's little doubt about which of the two groups involved has at least grasped the concept of remixing.
The first three tracks are taken from Die Krupps most recent album, Odyssey Of The Mind. All three have been remixed by FLA, none with any particularly great degree of imagination. When you take DK's current metal crossover style, and add current FLA musical sensibilities to it, what you get is something like a less imaginative Millenium with JÄrgen Engler's vocals. The mixes are listenable enough but tend towards mediocrity, with an "FLA-by-numbers" rhythm track and programming slapped onto the original material.
However, the mediocre FLA remixes are masterpieces of subtlety compared to the crimes against music that Die Krupps have committed upon three of Front Line Assembly's songs from Hard Wired. It's not that they've taken FLA's track, thrown away most of it, and used isolated samples in an otherwise unrelated track, as is so common in some other musical genres such as techno. Neither have they taken the original and played around with it, as FLA did with their three mixes. What Die Krupps have done appears closer to recording cover versions of the FLA songs than remixing them. I presume that traces of the rhythm track survive in some cases, skulking out of earshot under what is essentially a Die Krupps track. However, the combination of the metal guitars that are the primary feature of Die Krupps' current sound, and completely re-recorded vocals by DK frontman JÄrgen Engler, completely swamp any hints of the original. It's not pretty, and throws away the best ingredients of the FLA sound while (via the medium of Engler's voice, which is stronger and clearer than that of Bill Leeb) accentuating the lyrics to the point where you can actually make out what he's singing. Given the quality of the average FLA lyric, this is not a good thing.
Who wins this particular remix war, depends on how you define winning. If it's who does the best remix, I'd give this one to FLA, since their remixes are really remixes. If it's whose sound dominates, Die Krupps win hands down, since FLA tried to preserve some of the flavour of the originals, whereas the Die Krupps re-recordings are essentially covers or re-interpretations in the DK style, not remixes. Die Krupps have certainly shown more imagination than FLA here, and I get the impression that a lot of work went into their remixes. However, the end result is far from satisfying and verges on painful in some places.
Overall, this is probably only of interest to Die Krupps fans, or FLA fans with a particularly morbid sense of curiosity and a strong stomach. In summary, we all make mistakes, some of them bigger than others.
Erland Rating: -1
© Al Crawford 1996. All rights reserved.
Review from Metal Hammer at time of release. (exact publication date unknown.)
FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY Vs DIE KRUPPS
The Remix Wars Strike 2
SPV
3.5/5
EVERY once in a while it's good to wire your brain into the National Grid and try on some heavy duty industrial chaos but, given the virtually non-existant NIN output and the jaded 'Filth Pig' from former rulers of the roost Ministry, the challenge has fallen to replicants Front Line Assembly and Die Krupps to deliver the electro shocks.
The two camps play to each other's strengths in this mini remix war, with FLA turning it up to a pulverising stomp-factor 10 on the DK tracks 'Metamorphosis', 'Last Flood' and 'Scent', also adding some excellent flourishes to a usually plain sounding band.
Die Krupps return the favour by stripping FLA's suffocated, sample-led approach, harnessing the band's rhythmical power and turning previously lacklustre efforts such as 'Neologic Spasm' and 'Barcode' inio floor damaging demons.
CHRIS INGHAM
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