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hEADaCHE's award winning remix work has been used by artists around the world for their own releases - the last 6 years of material have all been collected for his latest release. Like 2 previous volumes, one of which was released on Invisible Records, imparts his own style on every song. But this time hEADaCHE expands upon the styles of music to include house and synthpop, while still capturing industrial, darkhop, DnB, and minimal techno. This volume includes a broad range of artists, such as indie rock legend Vincent Minor, the industrial mainstay diverje, smooth triphop of Lovespirals, and death metal gods Storm King. More reviews below CEOXiME's old website Entire List of remixesReviews of "out of phase":HearTheIndie.com hEADaCHE is a music producer and remix master out of Chicago. My personal feelings towards remixes have always been split. In some ways, I love them, especially when they introduce unique ideas into the work of artists I already enjoy. For instance, one of my favorite remixes is the Sound Remedy Remix of Ellie Goulding's "Holding On." It's beautiful and trance inducing, and truly enhances the original track, which in itself was great to begin with. Certainly, remixes can elevate music to a higher level if done correctly. On the flip side, too many remixes exist as a simpleminded cash in on the success of other artists, simply introducing some synths or, even worse, dubstep wubs and flips without much sense. With hEADaCHE's latest release of 15 remixes (covering a wide array of musical genres from death metal to trip-hop to indie rock entitled out of phase: the hEADaCHE remixes, there is likely to be a remix here for everyone, and the quality is typically exemplary of what one should expect from a remix tape. Production/Composition Before I dive into the meat of this review, let me preface this by saying I have minimal exposure to the original artists and tracks featured on this album. Sure, a few like Lovespirals have been past my ears in the past, but most of these artists are new to me. As such, hEADaCHE's remixes will be the first time I have listened to most of these songs and bands. While there is certainly value in examining how a remix enhances the original track, for the purpose of this review, I will be examining the remixes on their own merits. Asking questions like those I would ask regarding an entirely original act are what will be the driving force behind this review. With that out of the way, the production on out of phase: the hEADaCHE remixes is pretty solid across the board. Would one expect anything more from an acclaimed indie music producer and remixer? Most of the sounds are varied and easy to make out. Vocals commonly cut through the mixture, with heavy bass synths often painting a warm atmosphere in it's own way. Some ambient effects do end up in some tracks leading to some muddy blended tones, like on the track "SMP - Die for You," but it's generally not a big deal when listening. hEADaCHE's remix skills are at the fore on the house/electronica styled tracks like "Geodeisc - Falling Down." The diversity of sound is much more impressive than on the more aggressive, industrial styled songs. I suppose that is a bias of mine, as I find electronic music to be much more apt for remixing. Indeed, at times this album seems to run the gamut of sounds and styles, at times sounding similar to the Mass Effect soundtracks many of us video gamers have been inoculated by; while at other times entering into new terrain altogether with remixes of extreme metal tracks like on "Bleed Synth - All is Dust." In a world where diversity is king, hEADaCHE offers up an array of songs that your bound to enjoy at least a few of them. As for the compositions, it is difficult to say how much of an impact hEADaCHE has had on the overall tracks formerly developed by their respective artists. If I can say anything though, it would pertain most to the dynamics of the instruments utilized throughout these remixes. While there is much diversity across the board in terms of the sounds conveyed and styles this producer works with, many of the songs feel like they run on too long because there is a significant lack of dynamics in the songs. Most of the segments (IE: verses, choruses, instrumental interludes, etc.) feel like they play at the same volume levels. Common with remixes, especially in the genre of electronica, is an excessive use of compression to equalize sounds for the purpose of increasing volume levels; but it cuts out the ability to interpret one instrument or tone from another. I'm not sure if the issue here lies directly with over-compression, but the end result of too many segments sounding far too similar in volume and dynamic quality does exist. At times, it makes it difficult to listen to an entire track. Instrumentation/Vocals The instrumental characteristics on out of phase: the hEADaCHE remixes are generally very interesting. Indeed, some of the sounds no doubt stem from the original tracks being remixed, and hEADaCHE's selection of predominately synthetic tones to additionally paint the remix landscape works well. By the end of the album, you certainly get a sense of holism as each of these tracks touch on electronica in some way or another due in major part to the instrumentation and production style. Even death metal and industrial rock tracks move out of their respective genres and enter into this darkwave and cold electronic sound. Tracks like "Cybergeist - Angel" are particularly memorable to me because of the moodiness of the atmosphere and the general sense of overwhelming darkness, paired with these electronic and dark ambient elements that work so well. It's dark and doomy, yet contrasts bluntly with other tracks on the album such as "Little Pictures - This House Will Fit Us," which showcases some legitimate indie rock styled voices and compositional qualities overlayed with these electronic elements. As for the vocals on this album, they are, like the tracks themselves, diverse. From essentially off tune indie rock voices to shrieks and screams of death metal, again, diversity remains king. While I did find some voices irritating, it is all a matter of personal taste. Overall Impression out of phase: the hEADaCHE remixes by the music producer hEADaCHE is a solid 15 track remix album. Though it is imperfect, it has a lot going on for it that is good and memorable. Taking on genres like death metal and black metal, which are so often ignored by popular music remixes, is very attractive to me. The contrast with the lighter styles of music works well and creates this unified whole so similar to philosophical ideals behind the Yin and Yang. We have light and we have darkness. We have abrasive, dissonant tones and we have clean, melodic, and accessible ones. Overall, it works for me and for some artists, like the closing death metal remix would indicate, will motivate me to check out some of these artists in more detail. Recommended Tracks: "Storm King - Angels of Enmity," "Love Spirals Downwards - City Moon," "Lovespirals - This Truth," "Vincent Manor - Late Night Show." Boomboomchik.com hEADaCHE is no stranger to the remix world. His remix work has been used by artists all around the globe for their releases. With so many works under his belt, a collection 6 years in the making, he is ready to release the 3rd volume of his best remixes. On this album he has included a wide range of acts including indie rock legend Vincent Minor, the industrial mainstay Diverje, Smooth Triphop of Lovespirals, and death metal gods Storm King. When listening to the album front to back, you can hear how he imparts his own unique style on each and every track, not matter what genre it is. Overall, sound on the album expands past his usual industrial, DnB, and minimal techno style by including some house music as well as synthpop. My favorite remixes were "This Truth" by Lovespirals and "Volcanoe" by The Qualia. Reviews of Fully Automated: The hEADaCHE remixes:Regen Magazine by EvilMattJust in case you're a little bit confused, hEADaCHE is from the Detroit/Chicago-based electronic act CEOXiME, so don't worry, this isn't an album full of remixes by a guy who has no validity whatsoever. In fact, this album is the home to some of the best remixes I've heard in a long time. Finally, someone comes along who knows how to properly handle a remix! It's about damn time too, because the scene is flooded with bullshit remixes that never should have existed in the first place. Why this trend took off and was never promptly smacked right back down is beyond my comprehension. Fortunately, there are people like hEADaCHE out there who know what the hell they're doing.Fully Automated is a "best of" collection of sorts, for it holds 15 tracks of hEADaCHE's favorite remixes that he's done. This is a collection of previously released remixes, alternate versions of remixes, and future previews of soon-to-be-released-again remixes by hEADaCHE. There are remixes of songs done by the likes of Collide, Hypoid, Diverje, Croc Shop and Noxious Emotion to name a few. Most of these remixes are done wonderfully, for there are very few uninspired tracks on this release. The best remixes on this album are the tracks originally created by Collide, Hypoid, Diverje and Bottomfeeder. The Collide track is a very mellow, ambient-like trance breakdown with female vocals that leave you feeling very mellow and warm inside. The Hypoid remix follows that up with another mellow, yet emotionally charged track that will make you bob your head along with the simple beats. There are two Diverje remixes on this album, both of which are amazing and truly show how hEADaCHE was able to take existing songs and completely rewrite them in his own image. The Bottomfeeder remix is the heaviest track on the album, which features a steady mix of industrial and techno beats which make for a very enjoyable listen. There are only a few remixes on this album which seem sub-par, and those would be the tracks originally done by Noxious Emotion, Function13 and Things Outside The Skin. These aren't awful remixes by any means, but they are the most boring tracks on the album. With the exception of the Noxious Emotion remix, these songs are very monotone and bland. They should not have been put on the album. The Noxious Emotion remix is fine, but seeing how it was hEADaCHE's very first remix that he'd ever done, you can sense that his skills were not quite perfected at the time of its creation. This track is good for nostalgic purposes, and that is the only thing that gives it a place on Fully Automated. hEADaCHE's main band, CEOXiME, have an exclusive track on this release, which is a cover of the Radiohead song, "Exit Music (For A Film)." This song is the final track on the release and is not a remix, but it fits in perfectly with the rest of the album. It's a simplistic version of a simple song, but done with great sensibility, and this cover does justice to the original. The press release that came with this CD has a quote from hEADaCHE which ultimately explains this album better than what anybody else could say about it. hEADaCHE simply states, "I'll tell you what this album is not - it's not another half-assed attempt at future pop club anthems. It's not 'on the forefront' of the industrial or future pop trend. And it's not just throwing four-on-the-floor beats on top of an already existing song... And finally, it's not 'product.' It's good music I really enjoy and something I believe in." That says it all. This is a quality release of quality remixes. One would be a fool to not check this album out. Pop Matters by Mike SchillerThe assembly of a remix album must seem like such a foolproof plan to the artists and labels involved in such a venture -- if an artist remixes a pile of other bands, and then compiles all of those remixes on a single CD, not only do you sell to fans of the artist doing the mixing, but you pull in the diehards of all the bands that chose to be mixed as well. And for a band like CEOXiME, an electro-industrial two-piece that has enough clout to release music on such genre-specific labels as Invisible and DBSP (but hasn't pulled enough interest as to make any discernable footprint on the scene) the plan works. hEADaCHE, CEOXiME's programming half, has done a pile of remix work for bands like Collide, Croc Shop, and Slick Idiot, and the best of those remixes are compiled on Fully Automated: The hEADaCHE re:mixes, released on hEADaCHE's own Uncoiled Loops label.hEADaCHE's programming style is one of "broken beats"; that is, not "breakbeats" per se, but the homemade, heavily processed, and meticulously programmed style of beats that owes much of its existence to Aphex Twin's I Care Because You Do. It's a difficult task to apply such a programming style to the typically heavily structured feel of most modern day electro-industrial and EBM, but hEADaCHE does a worthy job, forcing his beats into loops that are almost always a significant step up from the uninspired drum work they are replacing. ... OutburnIndustrial - Rating: 7 - Who: hEADaCHE - From: Chicago IL - What: Remix albumThe Music: Ranging from retro industrial and EBM dance to moisy dirges and ethereal soundscapes, Fully Automated presents 15 diverse tracks all remixed by hEADaCHE. Standout tracks: Collide's "Wings of Steel", Croc Shop's "Generation", Silverchord's "Autopilot", Things outside the Skin's "Mettle IV", Five Star Reject's "Trainwreck", Bottomfeeder's "Maybe Someday", CEOXiME's "Exit Music" Gothic Beauty by PoseidonThis breakbeat-heavy CD single could fully qualify as a full-length album. 15 remixes together with a running time of over 70 minutes featuring incredible breakbeat remixes of a number of tracks by Collide, Croc Shop, and Endif among others. The CD even goes so far as to include information guiding you to a webpage with an additional 30 minutes of bonus material not available anywhere else. Also included is a cover of Radiohead's "Exit Music" performed by CEOXiME. This dynamic release is pulse-pounding and highly addictive, worthy of your road trips or head trips.Grave Concerns by Matthew JohnsonProducer hEADaCHE of the Detroit-based electronic project CEOXiME is also a prolific remix artist, and on this first collection shows off fifteen tracks of material reworked for other artists. There's a definite propensity for drum 'n' bass here, Silvercord’s "Autopilot" and Diverje's "Suspision" being particularly good examples, but the jungle influences also extend into the darker, more mechanical reworking of Collide's trip-hop on "Wings of Steel." Croc Shop's "Generation" turns into a hard acid house epic, while the industrial rock shouting of Five Star Reject's "Trainwreck" gets reworked as hard-hitting electro. Other tracks retain more of an industrial feel, for better or for worse. Endif's "Ashes" keeps a scrap-metal vibe to its rhythms that serves the track well...The best stuff here mixes a more upbeat analog synthpop feel with darker rhythms. Flood Damage's "Ovoid Vovoid" mixes coldwave angst with electronic beauty, while the remixed collaboration of Diverje and Soul Circuit on "Stronger" is a perfect blend of distorted but emotional singing, abstract rhythms, and programmed melody. To finish the disc out, this collection includes a new CEOXiME track, this time a cover of Radiohead's "Exit Music (For a Film)" that imbues the original’s moping melancholy with a deeper sensuality by adding slow, fuzzed-out beats and cinematic female vocals. This CD works both as a compilation of industrial electronics and an introduction to hEADaCHE’s body of work, and hopefully its diverse collection of artists will introduce new fans to a talented producer they might not have otherwise discovered.Side-line by CedricI think it’s always something special to release an album with all kinds of remixes a band made for others. This is a collection of remixes hEADaCHE made for formations like Collide, Diverje, Croc Shop, Noxious Emotion etc… and which have been released on different labels. It’s hard to recognize the style of the band, but the least I can say is that several remixes are pretty cool! So it starts with the dark electronic "Wings of steel"-remix of Collide. The more into jungle remixes they made for Diverje (cf. "Stronger"), LiveSexAct (cf. "New version of you") and again Diverje (cf. "Suspicio"”) are 3 powerful and cool mixes. In a different style, which moves into sophisticated treatments, there’s "Mystery of life" remix of Noxious Emotion. It seems that it has been their very first remix he ever made. Another cool cut is the "T-t-trainwreck" remix of Five Star Reject. I really like the multitude of bleeps running through this mix. Last, but not least, we also get a cover of Radiohead's "Exit music" by CEOXiME, which sounds a bit bombastic and trip hop like. Notice by the way that CEOXiME is a project of hEADaCHE. An easy and enjoyable listening! (DP:6/7)Chain DLK by Ian HallChicago-based hEADaCHE flexes his sonic architectural muscle on fourteen club tracks in this full-on remix effort. Primarily electro-industrial in their original incarnations, these re-born tunes emerge with shiny, synthetic wings, flying away in all new directions. The disc is solid from front to back, but some tracks really sprint to the fore. "Wings of Steel" by Collide glides on shimmering blanket of slowly waxing and waning trance lines, while a terse broken-beat stutters underfoot. Diverje/Soul Circuit's "Stronger," is indeed a brawny beast, distorted breakbeats giving it a completely different edge than the original version. The extended mix of Noxious Emotion's "Mystery of Life" is a hellacious long-player, somewhat reminiscent of the music used in some of the fiercest levels in the game Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, clocking in at an inhuman 9:37! "Mettle IV: Programmed Apathy" goes in the opposite direction, getting a quick, yet intense makeover. The Bottomfeeders track "Maybe Someday" is an interesting departure from the heavy-breakbeat sound, as hEADaCHE allows a strong vocal track to remain the focus of this song. Slow, deftly rendered beat clusters give a lift to the tender, ballad-like "Ovoid Vovoid," by Flood Damage. "T-T-Trainwreck" is a techno-infused rappel down the side of a skyscraper, as Five Star Reject's track cranks up the adrenaline. hEADaCHE’s band CEOXiME closes out the disc by stepping out of the club and into a dark alley with a low-key alteration of Radiohead's "Exit Music." hEADaCHE does a remarkable job of weaving his broken-beat styling into many of the remixes on this disc, considering the varied musical styles and textures of the source work. The CEOXiME track was a great choice as a finisher, too. A fine piece of remix work!Chain DLK by Tongue MuzzleCompilations are always a risky fair, loaded with bands both familiar and completely unknown, the listener can be either blown away by fantastic material or have their eardrums tortured for the length of the CD. The material can often be inconsistent thematically or have varying degrees of production quality. Fortunately, none of the these potential problems plague "fULLY aUTOMATED: The hEADaCHE re:mixes". The compilation consists of 14 remixes from a relatively diverse collection of bands all remixed by CEOXiME founder, hEADaCHE (who also provides us with a 15th track, a previously unreleased CEOXiME cover of Radio Head's "Exit Music {for a film}") . hEADaCHE levels the playing ground here. While the songs still maintain their original characteristics, going through hEADaCHE's blender-like maelstrom of beats and song reconstructions has unified them into a fantastically consistent CD that delivers the goods. Dance-floor remixes are more or less cast aside leaving room for more creative arrangements that are engaging, unpredictable and great for multiple listens. Bands featured on the compilation are Collide, Hypoid, Diverje, Soul Circuit, Croc Shop, Silvercord, LiveSexAct, Noxious Emotion, function13, things outside the skin, Bottomfeeder, Endif, Flood Damage, Five Star Reject and CEOXiME. Stand-out tracks: Endif "Ashes", Hypoid "Deprogramming Deposits of Fat" and Bottomfeeder "Maybe Someday".Reviews of other hEADaCHE remixesRelease Magazine by Johan CarlssonRe: Collide: VortexVariation is good, with styles ranging from Charlie Clouser's dark, trippy and guitar-laden mix of "Euphoria" via the softer and groovy Conjure One mix of "Tempted", to hEADaCHE's breakbeat version of "Wings of Steel." All those mentioned are among my favourites, and bring a lot of fresh ideas to the table. Technopunk Music by Bill Whiting-MahoneyRe: LiveSexAct: Segmented PurityThe one worth remembering when all is said and done belongs to the gorgeous and intoxicating "New Version Of You" as interpreted by hEADaCHE of CEOXiME that demonstrates the rare beauties of Segmented Purity: The Remixes make LiveSexAct much better as a seduction than a straight-out live fuck-fest. SidelineRe: Mutual Bonding Through Violation...If you survive that, a few more songs will show you a softer and more 'musical' way of composing. It remains aggressive and sung in a heavy distorted way, like the vocals have been transposed in a wall of noise! I personally prefer this approach and especially on cuts like "Deface" and the "Suspension Of Disbelief" remix by hEADaCHE! This is definitely an experience to expose your nerves and brains to a high degree of tolerance and loudness! BlackSheep Zine by Tommy T.Re: Mutual Bonding Through ViolationThe album ends with 2 remixes, one of "Suspension Of Disbelief" from CEOXiME. This one works well with mixing drum-n-bass and electro-industrial textures. This mix gives the song a more "dark electro" sound and is free of guitars. Something UsedRe: Mutual Bonding Through ViolationSome of the tracks are very club/underground party worthy. Take tracks the remixes by CEOXiME and Iammynewt that close the disc -- if you were to just omit the lyrics and leave the songs as instrumental -- you have a couple of great club songs. RhythmUS Network by ThengoreRe: Diverje 2:40AMThe hEADaCHE mix of "Stimulate" is very interesting as well. hEADaCHE has some weird way of manipulating bass rhythms and twisting the original track. AmbiEntrance by David J OpdykeRe: LiveSexAct: Segmented PurityDrum-machine-gone-mad rhythms pummel the otherwise floaty expanse of "New Version of You (hEADaCHE re:mix)" which is dominated by soft female words, from hEADaCHE of CEOXiME. www.performermag.com by C.D. DiGuardiaRe: LiveSexAct: Segmented PuritySomewhere around track two, in the second minute of "New Version of You", the drugs began to take hold. At least that's what it felt like. from the LiveSexAct website by Patti LeakeRe: LiveSexAct: Segmented Purityhave been listening and listening to your cd, and i wanted to tell you i love it! ... Today my favourite tracks are #2 and 15. |
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