Reprise Remixes＜限定盤/Clear Vinyl＞

Nearly all of Mobys major full-lengths since his 1995 critical breakthrough Everything Is Wrong have been accompanied by remix albums, ambient translations, or other reworks of his material. Reprise, released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2021, consisted of full orchestral re-recordings of his most familiar songs (as well as a cover of "Heroes" by primary influence and close friend David Bowie), accompanied by a cast of guest vocalists including Gregory Porter, Mark Lanegan, and Jim James. Reprise Remixed focuses on nine of the songs from Reprise, with several appearing in multiple versions. Many of the remixers attempt to do something new with the source material, which is welcome, since even the most casual Moby listener has heard the original versions of these songs countless times. "Go," for instance, has seen an infinite number of remixes since it jump-started Mobys career in the early 90s, and he impressively manages to refresh the song with his own "Trophy Mix" (presumably named after his short-lived underground Mute sublabel, Trophy Records). The track starts out with heavy bongos, shakers, and kick drums, taking more than two minutes to arrive at its dramatic Twin Peaks melody, and splendidly combining orchestral grandeur with raw beats. Anfisa Letyagos mix of the same song is more subtle and levitating, only briefly working in that haunting string melody. The most radical deconstruction on the album is Bambounous take on "Porcelain," which submerges Mobys and Jim James vocals in ring-modulated glitchiness and Richard D. James Album-style skittery breaks. Efdemin also contributes two contrasting versions of "Porcelain," a hypnotic minimal techno mix followed by a much more relaxed Kruder & Dorfmeister-esque dub. The biggest, boldest house tracks on the release are the reinterpretations of the gospel-derived hits from Play, although Mobys own "West Side Highway Remix" of "Natural Blues" goes for more of an organic, guitar-based funk angle, and Max Cooper pulls the song apart with excessive time-stretching on the vocals, eventually heating it up to a fervor with stomping beats and atmospheric strings. As with nearly all remix albums, particularly ones with multiple versions of the same songs, Reprise Remixed is uneven, but its much more varied and surprising than the faithful, big-stage adaptations of Reprise, and it does find creative ways to approach well-worn material from a variety of fresh perspectives. ~ Paul Simpson