Search - Karsh Kale :: Redesign: Realize Remixed

New and varied material from the master

courvidae | Seattle, WA | 01/21/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"After the mind-warping release of "Realize," we thought it couldn't possibly get any better. With soaring vocals, steaming tabla, and sonic washes of boggling beats, what more was there to ask for? Redesign.Karsh Kale teams his studio (Mighty Junn) up with some of the hottest, (yet still undiscovered by most ignorant Americans) djs to produce a selection of 11 remixed tracks from Realize. Including KK himself, Bill Laswell and MIDIval PunditZ make appearances in their own versions of "Home" and "Empty Hands."With 3 separate do-overs for "Home," (the most popular track off of the first cd)and two mixes for "Empty Hands," one would think the music gets old. Only very rarely do the tracks meld to become background music, and whenever boredom sets in, a new melody or audio trick jumps out to grab onto your ears. Plus a wholly new track known as "Destroy the Icon" comes out to show a preview of things to come.But the stars of the album certainly come in the ending tracks. With KK's second ode to his wife, Anja, we get "Anja: Mother Earth Mix." Close to the first track, yet with some beautiful subtleties added, this track is definitely a winner. The one that'll really knock your socks off is the third remix of "Home" by Mukul. Instead of layering more noise and beats, vocals and washes to the song (as the first two did), Mukul's Acid Lullaby breaks "Home" down into a quiet and creepy melody full of bells, burbles and running washes. A female vocalist begins the lyrics by whispering, gurgling and skipping around just under the radar. Then the regualr vocals break in sounding alien and faraway, creating a sense of sleepiness, creepiness and all out acid-laced trippyness. "again...realize reborn--reinvented and redesigned." KK"