Television Personalities : My Dark Places Remixes

Dan Treacy’s long running Television Personalities project leapt back into my consciousness with last year’s exceptional My Dark Places. In tandem with Overground’s release of an album of cuts made a couple of months prior to that album, Domino unleashes this EP of My Dark Places re-mixes at the end of February. Treacy’s reputation for off beat Britpop genius precedes him, and these four re-workings cling to the spirit of the original recordings while searching for invention. This EP reminds me most of a set of remixes for Lamb’s “Gabriel” from 2001. Throughout either, the source artist’s key hook or melodies were preserved with great results.

Evan `E*Vax’ of XL’s Ratatat puts an added spring in the step of “You Kept Me Waiting Too Long.” The end product succeeds, King of Woolworths style. Warp experimentalists Battles give “My Dark Places” a surreal squelch worthy of The White Album and Tortoise. The fast forwarded vocal cuttings recall the TVP’s 1992 Closer To God album. Brooklynites LingLing make “All the Young Children On Crack” into a “Honey For The Bears” style candle waver. A warm organ combines with the original’s basic beat to produce something clearly beautiful. She Can Stop Traffic is stripped of anthemia by Black Dice. Instead, the mineshaft aesthetic provided evokes 1984’s The Painted Word. Manic-comic shouts of “it’s a shame!” fit in perfectly.

It’s great to see Treacy given extra acknowledgment. A quality artist has been given the remix treatment he deserves.

Similar Releases:
Television Personalities – The Painted Word
Lamb – Gabriel EP
The Beatles – The White Album

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