Aarktica, In Sea Remixes

review by dave heaton

Aarktica’s 2009 album In Sea was Jon DeRosa’s most ambient/atmospheric soundscape-oriented album in a while. It may be those more abstract qualities that make it more open to interpretation by remixers. There’s a lot of mystery within the music, plenty of directions it can take you and you can take it. Yet it’s also a tribute to the talent level and artistic vision of the 14 remixers that makes In Sea Remixes such a rewarding experience.

These versions generally maintain the tone of the original album – calm, anticipatory, warm. There’s no putting DeRosa’s voice over a generic dance track, or anything like that. But still there is variety. To begin the CD, Rameses III take on “I Am (The Ice)”, using a small vocal intonation (a breath or sigh almost) as an incantation, while the icey atmosphere floats around. Al Qaeda plays up the apocalyptic dread in “A Plague of Frost (In the Guise of Diamonds)”, using a chaotic mix of distorted somethings, would-be field recordings from the apocalypse. Yellow 6 seems to almost pause “Onward!” in mid-air before transitioning into a casual saunter. Keith Canisius takes “Autumnal” in his typically lush dream-pop direction. James Duncan goes the dance-party route with “When We’re Ghosts”, but it’s a pretty strange dance party still.

The other 9 remixers are up to equally interesting things, including three very different takes on Aarktica’s take on Danzig’s “I Am Demon”. The stern incisiveness of that song is placed in a gorgeous fog by Landing to end the album, on the right note of bleak beauty.

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