‘DC EDM Mixes 2009' EP by General
Review
Fans of Coventry band General will be pleased to hear of the first digital release of their ‘DC EDM Mixes 2009' EP today on Mains Spike (it originally came out in 2009 (you probably could have guessed that) as a limited edition promo CD
It's quartet of tracks ("Dorothy", "Kamikaze", "Evil Ocean" and "Gone by Light of Day") which have been re mixed by their guitarist, Dave Claridge and remastered by Xris Chan.
I'm glad that they have told me that because they must be the most radical remixes I've ever heard: left to myself I'd have supposed them to be entirely different recordings to the versions of tracks you may be familiar with: and I might even have been persuaded that they were completely distinct songs altogether.
Given that General are known for their take on stoner rock, reimaginings "consisting of electronic beats & synths blended with guitars & vocals" is not quite the first option which would necessarily spring to mind if the songs were to be explored in a new manner: that it's in fact one of the actual band rather than covers by admirers working in a separate genre just adds to the surprise.
Of course I do tend to say that strong songs are capable of interpretation in various ways but these have been taken on quite a journey.
I'm not going to compare them: they are so radically different that I can appreciate the value in both approaches.
One searingly obvious outcome of what Dave has done is to elongate and so the tracks are explored at greater length which must have been as enjoyable & rewarding in the remixing process as in the listening.
Both approaches are in their own way pretty extreme and it's possible that the exercise included an element of finding common ground between the outsider aspects of the stoner and the techno communities. To that end, I imagine the songs were selected in 2009 from among their body of work to focus on ones which came across just as effectively each way.
I also assume that General would like to test the boundaries of expectations of their audience and offer them the chance to consider viewing songs they already liked via the filter of another subculture: and again that's something I can applaud.
