Warmduscher get a makeover on ‘At the Hotspot Remixed’
Earlier this year, London experimental rockers Warmduscher released their excellent fourth album, At the Hotspot. Filled with crunchy guitars and unexpectedly groovy rhythms, At the Hotspot was open and airy enough to be the basis for a series of wild remixes and reimaginings. That’s exactly what the band have done with At the Hotspot Remixed, a new four-song EP featuring new takes on three of the album’s best tracks.
First up is the new indie rock/post-punk band Yard Act, who soup of the slow-burning ‘Greasin’ Up Jesus’. The original is languid and slick, unfurling at an unhurried pace before breaking into a disco-rock jam halfway through. The members of Yard Act elect to filter the song through a looking glass of slowed-down breakbeats, dancey rhythms, and a heightened sense of dancefloor euphoria. Or is it anxiety? Honestly, it’s hard to tell, but you’ll hardly be paying attention as you groove along.
One of the best tracks from At the Hotspot is the aggressive electronic ‘Twitchin’ in the Kitchen’. Every time lead singer Clams Baker Jr. says “finger-lickin’”, it gives me the willies. That’s probably intentional, considering how this band of miscreants work, but it’s probably the most fully-realised piss-take on the entire album
Israeli duo Red Axes lean into the house music influence that was only hinted at on the original version of the track. The cheerleader chant that leads off the track is discombobulating in the best possible way, especially if you’re already familiar with the track’s original version. The ‘Genius of Love’ influence also comes in far more clearly on the Red Axes remix, even if Baker’s voice is left intact throughout the new go at the track.
The EP ends with two new versions of the album’s standout single, ‘Fatso’. The first comes from Hot Chip leader Joe Goddard, who extends ‘Fatso’ to a ten-minute haze of twitchy electronic hits and excessively mind-bending glissandos. Goddard’s mix certainly brings in the most eccentric additions on the EP, but it also takes forever for the song to get going, so take that into account if you’re just popping over for a casual listen.
The remix from former Ride lead singer and former Oasis member Andy Bell, performing under the DJ name GLOK, is more to the point. A tidy reimagining of the track’s more danceable elements, this version of ‘Fatso’ is keeping within the framework that all four remixers have laid out for themselves: Warmduscher, but club-ready.
It seems as though nobody is too keen on messing with Baker’s iconic and laconic lead vocals. That’s a shame, considering how half the fun of a remix is turning a song completely on its head to the point of barely recognising the track in the first place. Warmduscher live and die by Baker’s drawl, but their remixes certainly don’t have to. At the Hotspot is a nice enough diversion, but apart from the catchy Yard Act remix of ‘Greasin’ Up Jesus’, nothing on the new EP is going to usurp the original recordings.
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