ARTiST: My Brightest Diamond
TiTLE: Tear It Down
LABEL: Asthmatic Kitty
GENRE: Electronic
TiME: 68:00 min
SiZE: 84,3 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: Feb-07-2007
RELEASE DATE: Mar-03-2007
WEBSiTE: n/a
Track List:
01. Golden Star (Alias) 03:20
02. Workhorse (Lusine) 04:35
03. Freak Out (Gold Chains Panique Mix) 05:47
04. Disappear (Stakka) 04:05
05. Dragonfly (Murcof) 05:56
06. Magic Rabbit (Alfred Brown) 05:24
07. Freak Out 07:11
(DJ Kenny Mitchell REWIND 93 REMIX Featurin
08. We Were Sparkling (Haruki) 03:10
09. Something Of An End (David Keith - NC47) 06:04
10. Gone Away (David Michael Stith) 05:46
11. The Good And The Bad Guy (Siamese Sisters) 06:42
12. Gone Away (Strings Of Consciousness) 03:43
13. Disappear 06:17
(Wheat To Whiskey Mix By Cedar AV)
Release Notes:
My Brightest DiamondÆs Shara Worden has decided to
set loose her bobby pins and let her hair fly on the
ambient dance floor. Her latest semi-collaboration
with 13 different remixers, entitled ôTear It Downö,
reworks songs from the highly acclaimed album,
ôBring Me The Workhorseö featuring tracks by Alias,
Lusine, Murcof, Stakka and Gold Chains. Oh, itÆs
international too! With diplomatic representatives
from Belgium, France, Mexico, The UK and America
(East and West Coasts baby!), the remixes range from
drum-n-bass, to glitchy ambient, minimalism, and
get-your-booty-on-the-dance-floor club music.
The wonders of the internet abound and as evidence
of the modern times, where being in the same room
with someone is no longer necessary for
collaboration, the relationships to the remixers
vary from being friends, to fans, to MySpace finds.
Via the internet, tracks floated through the sky
like Willy WonkaÆs tv converter and landed in
bedrooms and studios with wonderful result. Having
crafted songs for five years, meticulously
deliberated over string arrangements for two years,
flying coast to coast for mixing and recording
sessions, and generally laboring over every aspect
of ôBring Me The Workhorseö, Shara was ready to hand
over the reins and see what the songs could do
without any of her guidance.
ôTear It Downö stands on itÆs own horsie legs. In
comparison to SharaÆs control in the songs of ôBring
Me The Workhorseö, these electronic horsetrainers
loosen up the forms and smooth over some of the
rougher emotional outbursts. Many of the remixers
adhere to the original song forms, snazzing them up
or stripping them down, and there are also examples
of djs excerpting the tracks to create something
entirely new and not song form related, focusing on
one element and elaborating, rather than being bound
to the storytelling. Shara says, ôThe variety of
their approaches made this project exhiliratingly
unpredictable!ö
The album opens with indie beloved Anticon artist,
Alias, rocking his version of ôGolden Starö. While
the song form is the same, we hardly recognize it.
Gone are the angry guitar rumblings and welcomed in
are beautiful electronic twinkles and killer kick
drums. While on tour in Seattle, Ghostly artist
Lusine came to shake SharaÆs hand from the stage.
Now she knows what he looks like. His rolling,
moody, sexy version of ôWorkhorseö employs
vibraphone, major chords and soaring strings,
finding its home at track two on the album. Gold
ChainsÆ remix nabbed the title track trophy with his
club reconstruction of ôFreak Outö. ôItÆs time to
tear it downö and she did and he did and you will.
Having featured English DJ/producer StakkaÆs remix
on the single for ôDisappearö, we are still enjoying
its dramatic trapeze act drum beat. Like a secret
mission, Shara went to StakkaÆs Brooklyn apartment,
slipping the split tracks through his mail slot. A
week later, the amazing 16-bit version landed on her
proverbial email doorstep. Still they have never
met. Will they ever? Eyebrows raised.
That mysterious and haunting male voice from ôMagic
Rabbitö appears again, but this time in the Scott
Walker-esque remix of ôGone Awayö. Who is that
masked, multi-talented man? Also known for his
subconsious drawings on ôBring Me The Workhorseö,
David Stith emerges subtley. The clamor and noise
seem to hush in the quiet suspension of his gorgeous
and icey remix. The backstory begins in the summer
of 2004 which found Shara recording demos in a
Brooklyn basement converted into museum, The Museum
of Disembodied Folk Art. In the next room lived
David Stith who would creep out during cookie and
milk breaks and he and Shara would discuss music,
art, life and the Starbucks coffee uniform. David
moved away momentarily but Shara kept snooping
around his diggs, borrowing microphones, triangle
beaters and getting him to sing, draw and remix on
projects for her! Cheers to more collabs between
friends! Speaking of friends, Mr. Stith made a mix
cd of some electronic favs to help Shara research
remixers and a mix by Mr. StithÆs pal, Alfred Brown
was nestled there. Shara heard his music and loved
and then wrote to Mr. Brown for his minimalistic
touch.s
MySpace can be a beautiful way of finding people,
when itÆs working and not slow as Christmas. ThatÆs
how Shara found the Belgian electronic beauty of
Haruki. With what looked like a bird on wallpaper,
Shara was drawn in by the id photo and began
listening. With a delicate hand, Haruki preserves
the song ôSparklingö while opening it up to shiny
glitchy electronic worlds reaching beyond the
organic.
If you recognized the sounds of DJ Kenny M and David
Keith a.k.a. NC47, it might be because you heard the
Awry Remix EP! Before there was My Brightest
Diamond, there was the band Awry, a collaboration
between Shara and guitarist Shane Yarbrough. Awry
made two full length records and released a short
remix EP, so it seemed only natural to have some of
the old school djs represented on the MBD remix
album. Local Brookynite, DJ Kenny M makes us move to
the dance floor with his drum-n-bass version of
ôFreak Outö that might just possibly maybe, but we
arenÆt sure, reference ôLe Freak, CÆest Chicö. The
vibey groove of David KeithÆs ôSomething of an Endö,
highlights those original buried string tracks, and
gives chilling isolation to the line ôbeautiful and
terribleö, but this interpretation makes you feel
less like the world is coming to end and more like
you know everything is going to be okay. Sounds Are
Active artist, Siamese Sisters bring their own magic
production, scrambling the text of ôThe Good and The
Bad Guyö. What is she saying? She wants to be the
bad guy now? My how things change!