Squid release an EP of remixed tracks, creatively entitled 'Remixes'

Brighton-based post-punk outfit, Squid, has released a new EP containing remixes of their critically acclaimed debut album, 'Bright Green Field.'

Creatively entitled 'Remixes,' the EP was released on October 27th via Warp Records, containing reworks of their tracks by experimental music veteran, Cosey Fanni Tutti, and on-the-rise London-based producer Lorraine James. James has, deservedly so, been turning heads with her well-crafted multi-genre sound that best resides under the IDM umbrella, but takes influence from R&B, jazz, and drill. 

 

With her 2021 album 'Reflection,' James insisted that she doesn't make club or bass music but experimental music, full stop. If she insisted it then, her remix of 'Narrator' all-out ends the conversation. Squid's punk-rock guitar riffs are chopped into a thumping melody, deceptively luring you into an, albeit tense, sense of normality. That is until lead singer Oliver Judge's vocals are pitched beyond recognition; it seems James has sonically inserted the listener into our unreliable narrator's world. The remix slowly unravels, Squid's instrumentation becomes more chaotic and unsettling. Just as our narrator's imagined world defies reality, the song defies the classic rules of composition. By mirroring the chaos, James immerses the listener into the paranoid, tumultuous mind of our protagonist. 

 

James' remix is accompanied by that of musician, author, and artist Cosey Fanni Tutti. Juxtaposing James' youth is Tutti's experience, having begun her career in the late 60s. A seismic force in the experimental music scene, her CV is littered with impressive accolades, such as inventing industrial music while a member of the group Throbbing Gristle. Tutti is also known for her membership in COUM Transmissions, a performance art group whose work shocked audiences by featuring sex acts and displays of painful self-mutilation. 

 

Tutti's dubby remix of Squid's 'Global Groove' matches the song's sinister theme: a critique of the 24-hour news cycle's desensitizing influence on our view on war, death, and destruction. She comments on her process of reworking the track: "As soon as I heard the song there were certain sounds that immediately inspired me. But a huge factor in what accepting me to do the remix was the free adventurous and experimental approach to making music which fits so well with how I work. So to be given free rein to do whatever I wanted was brilliant. I got pretty forensic extracting fragments of sound as well as deconstructing, manipulating, sampling adding new sounds, and rearranging new tracks... I loved every minute of diving into the world of Squid."

Elina Ganatra

@elinaganatra

Image: 'Remixes' Official EP Cover