VIOLENTLY HIPPY REMIXES

Note: 4 stars for Hidira/Ozrics fans

This is a difficult album to review because it involve assessing the quite different styles of the various artists who have remixed Hidria's music. It was released on the Finnish Exogenic breaks label and taps on Finnish talent. Kanesh Bosm is remixed by "a man form Hidria".I think this is actually Sami Wirkkala. It has a very trippy dance feel which weaves in and out of an ambient mood. Accu's version is much more electronic beat.Accu are another Finnish act: with a very groovy disco/lounge/dance sound. Their version is more disco/funk/dance with clips of the sitar like line form the original. Kiwa is a Finnish duo (Markku Louhio and Matti Elsinen) on the Exogenic label. Their take on Nasha Universo is heavy in bass and trippy. For me this is a fabulous remix; it injects some of the energy into the track which you would expect to find in a live performance (if Live 11 AM is anything to go).

Sindran-Rastafan is given the treatment by Ghettoblaster. This is an excellent mix of the reggae number: with lyrics including the exortation "keep it clean and keep it simple". Works very well.

Texas Faggot are another duo on the exogenic label. Primordium is a trance like version of the Symbiosis number Agents Entropos. Finis is a very high tempo: not for the faint hearted.

The first few minutes of LB:Amos Ame (from HRDSF-1) loses the original almost completely in a banal disco beat. Almost at the point where I'd lost the will to keep listening some of the Amos Ame came in but no sooner had the light been opened than the door was slammed frimly shut.

I-mantra (from Symbiosis) is remixed by The Stealth Unit Sound Collective (Robin Grotenfelt,Genki, Koe, Mikko Mantila and Kride Tuomi). Here the mix works really well. A drum & bass feel manages to supplement the original.

The Reauna remix of Pangaia is atmospheric, much more of an ambient feel with overlaid voice clips. An intersting track but again I lost the original in the mix.

It's hard to rate a remix album. The big question for me is: has it lost its prog identity and beome a dance album? On balance I reckon so. For me it's a 4 star album because when listening to the remix I am constantly filling in & referncing to the original spacerock, but if you are not famiiar with Hidria then this is a dance album. As the ratings go that seems to me to be a 2.

"Violent Hippy Remixes" is a rather nice compilation of modern trip-hop and trance remixed best tunes from HIDRIA SPACEFOLK by themselves. One could be afraid by seeing the word "Remixes" on a progressive rock release, but the tracks featured here are by no means simplistic techno rearrangements, but offer rather another gaze on the musical "ambient jungle" spirit of the band, making some pieces looking very different from the originals.

The disc alternates relaxing and upbeat passages, which reminds me of THE ORB and PROPELLERHEADS. Some remixes are a real success, like "Agents Entropos Part "2 and "Pangaia", which new version is literally mindblowing with its flute and its jungle rythms. Unbelievable, Can't get enough of it! Some other remixes are less interesting.

Although as not very progressive, this compilation of HIDRIA SPACEFOLK's remixes by themselves should please fans of the band, as well as OZRICs, THE ORB and ambient music lovers.