Pitchshifter
The Remix War

LA RECENSIONE

In my many written reviews, I have almost always tried to give absolutely positive judgments to the albums considered; today, however, I will go beyond this characteristic of mine because I will deal with a work that, since its release in 1994, has always made me "shit." And it's perhaps strange that I decided to write about such an atrocity on a Christmas morning; but even holidays rather get on my nerves, so everything falls into place.

Even the insignificant cover doesn’t help; those names written in huge letters with total coldness are already indicative of a lazy work, which suddenly made me fall out of love with Pitchshifter; a band that in their early works of very dark Industrial-Death, with a good dose of scornful electronics inserted into the flow of the tracks, had delighted my ears very well.

Practically in this work, the following happens: the English band, led by the Clayden brothers, takes some previously published tracks and submits them to a substantial injection of electronics, assorted (and questionable) samples, remixing them at their own pleasure with entirely subpar results. Three tracks are then entrusted to the disassembling and remaking work by Biohazard, Therapy?, and Gunshot.

In those nineties, for a certain period, this desire for electronics and dub was fashionable, and many extreme bands did the same thing, with results that were excellent in some cases (take for example Godflesh and Fear Factory). But it's one thing to be able to count on the genius of Justin Broadrick of "Godflesh," and then the result can only be positive; when instead the remixes fall into the hands of people who have very little familiarity and competence in the electronic field, it is very easy to pull real garbage out of the hat.

To be honest, the four tracks reworked by Pitchshifter, who are obviously also the original authors, contain some brilliant insights, as happens in the extremely violent "NCM," which seems like a heavily drugged mix between Ministry’s Psalm 69 (a personal moment of silence to celebrate the devastating brutality of this musical pillar) and the alienating repetitiveness of the primordial Godflesh guitar riffs.

For the rest, "hot air," not to say worse.

Listen to the dub-hip hop-rap abomination of "Triad" recycled, with truly pitiful results, by those Gunshot jokers.

Biohazard doesn’t do any better (but what does their dark New York school Hardcore have to do with electronics, I wonder...) and Therapy? who are distant relatives of their Troublegum album released at the beginning of 1994. Unrecognizable and out of all logic.

Concluding a work I re-listened to on this occasion after years... and aided by the Christmas night libations, I eventually had to retreat to the bathroom at home for a few minutes. I leave it to others' imagination to understand what for.

Move on, forget about it; you won't miss anything good. Trust the "Testicle Grinder."

Diabolos Rising 666.