Following
Prins Thomas
' lengthy ambient house opus
Principe del Norte
, the Norwegian space disco king extends the reverie with a double CD of remixes and newer tracks. The original album brilliantly paid homage to '70s prog rock and cosmic electronic music as well as '90s ambient techno, and was thoroughly enchanting throughout its 96-minute duration.
Principe del Norte Remixed
has an abundance of worthwhile material, although at two and a half hours (including no less than eight tracks clocking in at over ten minutes each), it ends up being an exhausting listen. As with the original, the first disc of
Remixed
is the more abstract, spacious one, ranging from a bugged-out, squirmy
Sun Araw
mix to a mellow flute-driven version by
Dungen
.
contributes a sublime original called "J," and the collection starts to become more kinetic with dancefloor mixes by
I:Cube
and
Young Marco
. The second disc is all percolating techno and simmering acid house, including two
originals and a self-remix.
Gerd Janson
's take on "A1" is a grin-inducing cut with synths that seem to bubble upwards, and a vibraslap buried in the mix.
Ricardo Villalobos
provides two mixes of "C" that are as excessively minimal as one would expect from the producer -- they clock in at 13 minutes each! The "King Crab Mix" has a clicky microhouse beat with "Strings of Life" stabs at weird intervals, and the following "Knoedel Prince Dub" is the same but even more stripped-down.
The Orb
couldn't be a more fitting choice to remix
, and along with an "Orbient Mix" of "H" on the first disc, there's the "Heaven or Hell Remix," which places typewriter dings and rippling echoes over a steady disco/house beat.
Hieroglyphic Being
also contributes two fantastic mixes, the first of which starts out weightless and fluttery before developing a rough, choppy beat, and the second containing a beat all the way through. ~ Paul Simpson