August 28, 2009

Album Review - Bloc Party

BAND NAME: Bloc Party

LP TITLE: Intimacy Remixed

LABEL: Wichita Recordings

TRACKS: 13

RATING: 7/10

Bloc Party – An English band credited with revolutionising the ‘alternative dance’ movement.

Intimacy – The Band’s opus album, critically acclaimed and a commercial success. 

Remix - A new or modified audio recording.

Add all three together, and you have one hell of a listening experience!

Bloc Party seem to be boldly devoted to the rather difficult endeavour of merging the guitar heavy sounds of modern post-punk and the futuristic sounds of the London rave scene. So, in that way, a remix album is quite surely the logical conclusion to the bands earlier flirtations with electronic music.

Some critics and purists will claim that this is a simply an attempt to reuse old material for commercial gain; however let it be known that the remixes found on this album are without exception of an extremely high calibre. From stripped-down edgy darkness, to pulsating bass lines, to almost euphoric triumph: It truly is an ideal melding of man and (drum) machine.

It’s the complete smooth and streamlined flow of the album, a rather subtle manoeuvring through a range of dance-based styles, which makes Intimacy Remixed a success. Like most critically acclaimed dance-based albums, the over-all whole is substantially better than the individual parts. For all its distortion, synth beats and drum-loops, the feeling that this is a Bloc Party album rarely dissipates, and the sense of utter dance-floor elation never stops growing.

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