Send "Health " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Though HEALTH improved on the Boredoms-inspired sound of their self-titled debut with last year's more melodic Get Color, they still shine brightest on their remix collections. They followed up the 2007 release of HEALTH with Disco, a surprisingly coherent collection that re-jiggered their sinewy, abrasive tunes. On Disco, artists like Pictureplane and Nosaj Thing channeled HEALTH's chaotic rhythmic power into tight, four-on-the-floor tracks and created sweaty, spazzy, and sexy songs from the noisy source material. And most importantly, Disco seems to have influenced them in making new music. Get Color found HEALTH taking cues from those remixes, growing in a more streamlined, synth-heavy, groove-oriented direction.Which brings us to Disco2. You could say that it's a remix album of a studio collection that was influenced by a remix album. But rather than becoming an indistinct photocopy of a photocopy, the album brings HEALTH's strengths sharply into focus. Though the heavy tribal pounding and drum freak-outs of the originals are mostly stripped away, the new beats highlight how central rhythm is to these songs. The remixes also give a newfound heft to Jacob Duzsik's reedy, almost-feminine voice, which is already higher up in the mix on Get Color than on HEALTH. Javelin's version of "In Heat", for example, uses Duzsik's otherworldly vocals as its jumping off point, cushioning the singing in a funky bass line. Fleshing out the productions, the album is carried forward by waves of shimmering synth figures, many of which are ripped from HEALTH's originals, an approach that shines a spotlight on the band's underestimated way with hooks....full text |
| Prefixmag |
| The members of Los Angeles noise outfit Health have a comfortable system going: Make an album, then tap esteemed artists and producers to remix every song on the LP. It's proven to be an excellent way to spotlight the band's affinity for intricate synths and dance rhythms. In 2008, Health released Disco, a remix album of their self-titled debut; its successor, Disco2, is a remix album of 2009's Get Color. Disco2 features remixes from Gold Panda, Crystal Castles, Javelin, CFCF and others, plus new track "USA Boys," a spacey, fidgety number that's right at home among the remixes. ~ Susannah Young ReviewBy Erik Ziedses des Plantes Prefix Rating 8.0 Average Rating 8.5 Your Rating Login to rate this post No matter how you approach it, Health's Get Color is not an easy album to remix. It's a brittle slab, bristling with noise and few moments that explicitly lend themselves to the dance floor. The closest they come is "Die Slow," but that's immediately followed by "Nice Girls," another one of the band's down-the-rabbit hole drum-led excursions. Attempting to remix this album is kind of like trying to find a pleasant way to tie a pretty ribbon around a nail bomb. It's telling, therefore, that the remixers tapped for Disco2 seem less concerned with repackaging Health's blasts of Boredoms-tinged noise rock as slick, club-ready chunks of dance music. The end result of this collection is a re-contextualization of Health as a band, a "what if?" scenario that almost presents the Los Angeles quartet as some lost synth-based group who employed ethereal, Cocteau Twins-like vocals. It's some straight up bizzaro-world type stuff, for all you comic-book fans. When these remixes succeed, it’s when they take the original song and stay faithful to certain aspects of it that make it distinct, and luckily, the ratio of hits to misses leans heavily in favor of hits. CFCF’s take on the pulsing “Before Tigers” amplifies the melodic aspects of the original’s waves of noise using shimmering, almost tropical synths. Gold Panda’s approach to the same song emphasizes the dynamic contrasts that the original takes, its journeys from soft to loud, and filters it through a loping IDM beat. The remixes that draw more influence from synth-dominated hip-hop are massive hits, whether it be Javelin’s supremely funky club-rap version of “In Heat” or Salem’s futuristic Houston version of “In Violet.” If someone dropped some chopped-and-screwed vocals over that one, it wouldn’t be terribly inappropriate. The two marquee names on this collection, Tobacco and Crystal Castles, get some of the meatier tracks to mess around with. Tobacco throws a Black Moth Super Rainbow mask over “Die Slow,” offering his characteristicly scuzzy keyboards and drum machines that sound like they’re about five minutes away from falling apart. Crystal Castles, the veterans of the Health-remix scene, pull the old bait-and-switch with their version of “Eat Flesh.” At first it sounds like the most sedate thing the duo has ever done, but then the spazz-out drums and haunted house keyboards offer a square right hook to the listener’s jaw. None of the failures on this album are particularly egregious. If anything, they’re examples of just missing the target. The omission of “We Are Water” is a little curious, considering it’s one of the songs on the original album that would actually make sense to send to more dance-oriented territory, with its rapid-fire hi-hats and actual, consistent beat. Also, despite two great attempts, neither Tobacco nor Pictureplane manage to nail the rusty malice of “Die Slow.” Blondes is probably the biggest offender here: The Brooklyn duo’s version of “Nice Girls” is a remix in name only, abandoning nearly every element of the source material and spreading it out over an excessive eight-minute time period....full text |
| Indieshuffle |
| It’s hard to call an album eagerly awaited without sounding like you’re selling something. Especially considering the band’s last album came out only nine months ago. But I promise I have been waiting for this remix extravaganza since before Get Color even came out. Like the first HEALTH//DISCO, HEALTH::DISCO2 is just as wacky and unpredictable as Health and the flock of characters they got to do the remixing are. Non-disco Health fans don’t tend to jive well with the dance-track-only crowd, but I hope this album offers up some reconciliation. Health (noise) is my favorite band after all, and I just can’t seem to get enough of these disco nuggets. The stems of the original tracks are buried in their somewhere, but each tune is a opportunity for the remixer to show his style, rather than an attempt to turn Health’s grinding noise into something suitable for the dance floor. Even though the album just got an official release this month the standout tracks have been widely available for a while. CFCF magically turns the eerily throbbing ‘Before Tigers’ to a day on a tropical beach, Tobacco spits out a very Tobacco sounding redo of the once thrashing ‘Die Slow,’ and Pictureplane puts his cool touch on that same track. Health also put a very solid new original, ‘USA Boys,’ as the opener. However, the highlight of the first Disco, Crystal Castles, drops the biggest disappointment with their take on ‘Eat Flesh.’ I was already beyond content with my newly acquired piece of plastic when I discovered I got 12 extra remixes just by sticking the CD in my computer. The tracks by Nastique, Pink Stallone, and Baron Von Luxxury are particularly banging, and the bonus materials give new fans a great introduction to Rainbow Arabia, Clipd Beaks, and Nite Jewel. Bonus Track: Health – Die Slow (Pink Stallone Rmx)...full text |
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