Mine wore out in only days

Lali Puna - Alienation (Alias Remix)

Both of these artists have been featured here on MFR before, and we're fortunate enough that as chance would have it, their paths have crossed previously, which we are reminded of on Alias' upcoming collected remixes album. It's not so much of a coincidence, in that Lali Puna shares bandmembers (Markus Acher) with personal favorites the Notwist and the Notwist + Themselves hybrid group 13 & God, the latter also being featured on Anticon, where Alias currently resides. And Kevin Bacon signed them all to the label, so there you go.

The remix features Alias (which is an, ahem, alias for Brendon Whitney) at his best, adding his masterful touch to a stripped-naked vocal backbone from the original song (featured on 2004's Faking the Books, which was a perfect example of the breathtaking power of masterful minimalism in music production). While remixing such an intricate and inherently beautiful track requires a delicate touch, his work remains true to his typical style, using plenty of lo-fi sounds (hand claps, fuzzed out drumbreaks) melted together with a delicately placed smattering of electronic touches to ultimately reinterpret the song with wonderful results. The same themes that made me love the Alias & Tarsier LP are all present in this track, as well as throughout the upcoming remix CD, which you can buy direct from the label this May.

Lali Puna and Alias. Yum. Should be an ice cream flavor.