1000 Gecs And The Tree Of Clues

As 100 Gecs, producers Laura Les and Dylan Brady threw multiple disparate styles in a blender and ended up with a new form of frenetic, unwieldy pop music. Their brief 2019 debut album, 1000 Gecs, was a blur of caustic electronics, abrasive hooks, and wild combinations of sound and style that shouldnt have worked but did. Remix album 1000 Gecs and the Tree of Clues serves as a companion piece to the debut, taking the duos weird angles on pop to even more obtuse dimensions by bringing in outside perspectives. The multiple directions and quick-changing energy of the original songs give the remixers a lot to work with. The cute and playful Ringtone takes on a more polished pop sheen with Charli XCX singing the chorus and new, more complex verses from Rico Nasty and Kero Kero Bonito replacing the singsong melodies of the original. A.G. Cooks reworking of Money Machine translates the songs hyperactive bounce into a refined and dreamy wash of MIDI harp sounds and cavernous reverb without losing any of the thrill. Contributions from like-minded artists like Hannah Diamond, umru, and GFOTY have a similar warp as the originals, with overloaded beats, pitch-shifted vocals, and frantic production. Some of the most interesting tracks on 1000 Gecs and the Tree of Clues come from less predictable pairings. Lil West and Injury Reserve rap over anxious instrumentals on their remixes, adding intensity to 100 Gecs already overwhelming palette. Fall Out Boys Patrick Stump sings on a Craig Owens remix of Hand Crushed by a Mallet, taking the emo-inclined original all the way over the top with live drums, melodramatic vocal harmonies, and blasting guitars. Its a little bit ridiculous but genuinely exciting in its strangeness, much like 100 Gecs themselves. ~ Fred Thomas