Send "Simian Mobile Disco " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 For a duo best known for pop-dance albums with big choruses and bright hooks, this is one sinister DJ mix that's not much interested in making converts. When the most accessible vocal cut here is Simian Mobile Disco's own remix of DJ Hell's "U Can Dance"-- wherein Bryan Ferry sounds like he's moonlighting at Satan's supper club-- you know you're not in SMD's usual user-friendly indie-remix territory. Cherry picking across three decades of dark dance (and not-quite-dance) music, SMD use Is Fixed to explore house and techno's creepier impulses, tracks in which insistent basslines suddenly turn uncomfortably, claustrophobically insistent. And when they leave the rave behind, whether it's Conrad Schnitzler's fizzing pre-Detroit proto-electro or Etienne Jaumet's snarling post-Detroit neo-electro, SMD still favor synth riffs that feel more John Carpenter than Derrick May.Like most modern DJs with point-and-click access to all eras and genres, SMD are freed up both chronologically and stylistically, for better or worse. Sleekly sculpted modern day minimal is joined, sometimes jarringly, to crude old-school house bangers. All of this decade-hopping and style-shuffling can make for some choppy transitions; Is Fixed certainly isn't the smoothest mix you'll hear this year. Like a lot of DJs who chase a mood even when it gets in the way of technical perfection, SMD will choose a jolt to the ears over an easy fade if it gets them where they need to go. But the rough edges of the mixing actually suit the agitated, about-to-fray quality of certain tracks. This is dance music that wants to knot you up with tension, offering only little hints of ecstatic release. Even the minimal tunes, like Pitchfork contributor Philip Sherburne's "Salt and Vinegar", have the kind of tightly wound percussion that once gave old-school house its eerie tribal vibe. That vintage acid-house atmosphere of delirium informs the whole mix. It's fitting the n that SMD acknowledge acid's groove outright by including Bam Bam's "Where's Your Child", long the gold standard for goosebump-inducing first-generation acid singles, with its throbbing rhythm track punctuated (but not undone) by disorienting samples of shattering glass and screaming infants. More than 20 years later, "Where's Your Child" still feels like funk pitched up to the verge of a full-blown freakout, but like Is Fixed, it never quite tips over the edge....full text |
| Residentadvisor |
| Jas Shaw recently described his residency with Simian Mobile Disco partner James Ford at New York's FIXED as having "a broad, classy music policy...set to follow in the footsteps of legendary nights such as trash and Optimo." Given the almost too deliberate eclecticism Simian showed off on FabricLive.41, it was easy enough to guess what that might mean in terms of Simian Mobile Disco Is Fixed, the duo's new mix CD, which they put together to help commemorate the residency: a little bit of roots, a little bit of now, a little bit of oh-aren't-they-clever, a little bit of sure-it-rocks-the-party. No harm, no foul and despite the many dots being connected, not a whole lot that someone with a similarly wide range of taste would be especially surprised by. Well, scratch that. Fixed does is the most seamless thing Simian have put their name on. On paper, this tracklist hits some of the same notes as the Fabric mix—classic Chicago acid house (Bam Bam's "Where's Your Child?"), foggy dream-techno (Pantha Du Prince's "Behind the Stars"), lab-coat early electronic music (Delia Darbyshire's "Dreams"), and near-pop, thanks to Carl Craig's remix of Hot Chip's "One Life Stand." But Fixed unfurls in a straight line, the way a techno mix ought to, and while the sound it presents is relatively narrow—especially in comparison to the all-over-the-place feel of the Fabric mix—it's also sinuous and well paced, with the duo's own "Nerve Salad" a highlight, alternately woozy and piston-like. It's noteworthy that it takes until the Hot Chip remix, with ten minutes left to go on the running time, to hear undistorted human singing in the mix. (Bam Bam's vocals are heavily treated.) And while it's a relief to encounter Alexis Taylor's all-too-human tones in the midst of the hard and straight (if elastic) beats here, it's a bigger one to hear Shaw and Ford not simply on their game but clearly in their element. (They even sprinkle some extra 808 on top of a few tracks.) Fixed isn't perfect—the segue from "Nerve Salad" into Pantha Du Prince is pretty dicey—but it's convincing. By stripping things down, Simian Mobile Disco prove there's more to them than you might have imagined....full text |
| Limewire |
| It’s hard to believe this is the first U.S. mix release from British duo Simian Mobile Disco (a.k.a. Jas Shaw and James Ford), but it was well worth the wait. This two-disc set kicks off the first volume of a new series celebrating Fixed, a weekly party launched in New York City in 2004 by DJs JDH and Dave P at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. The parties have featured a who’s who of techno, electronica and indie electro — from LCD Soundsystem to Klaxons to Little Boots to M.A.N.D.Y. to Booka Shade to Justice. The Simians do the party’s diverse guest list proud with a varied, seamless two-disc set. Disc one features some damn dope space-tronica (Jurek Przezdziecki’s “Qwerty Poema,” Conrad Schnitzler’s “Ballet Statique”) and some dark-ass techno (Andre Walter’s “Malphas,” Bam Bam’s “Where’s Your Child,” and SMD’s remix of DJ Hell’s “U Can Dance”). Disc two shows off the eclectic side of the celebrated dance night, starting with the wobbly digi-chug of Phillip Sherbourne’s “Salt and Vinegar.” They throw one of their latest food-themed joints, “Nerve Salad,” into the fray, as well as a sickly funky Carl Craig re-edit of Hot Chip’s “One Life Stand.” There’s a dark, sexy vibe going on from these vets that makes this a killer addition to the mix CD landscape. Let’s hope the Fixed folks keep ‘em coming....full text |
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