★★★★☆



To call Alt-J’s upcoming album a collection of “remixes” is an understatement.

If you’re like me – annoyed by the remixes constantly intruding in your Spotify playlists – “Reduxer”, coming out on September 28, won’t be that appealing.

A selection of rappers, musicians, and producers from all over the world joined Alt-J in a collective, truly global effort to reimagine the eight songs present on the trio’s third album, “Relaxer”.

The fourth studio album by the English indie band, which is the culmination of a project started when Alt J performed “In Cold Blood” with the Americans Pusha T and Twin Shadow last year, has been reductively labelled a “collection of hip hop influenced remixes.”

However, “Reduxer” is truly genre-bending. Whileit has always been hard to classify Alt J’ s music (they went as far as defining themselves a folk band), this album goes way beyond what we are used to.

As the band revealed after their announcement, it is heavily influenced by hip hop, but also has hints of soul and jazz (see the new rendition of “Hit Me Like That Snare”) and orchestra pieces, all the while maintaining Alt-J’s unique sound.

Don’t expect the kind of remixes that are money-making machines to dance in the club. There is a lot more going on here. Some of the songs are barely recognisable at a first listening. For example “Hit Me Like That Snare” went from a Doors inspired psychedelic rock piece, to a soul track thanks to the collaboration with Brighton artist Jimy Charles Moody.

Other songs maintain a similar structure to the originals and some recurring elements make them instantly recognisable. It’s the case of the two reinterpretations of “In Cold Blood”. Both the version with Pusha T and the one with German rapper Konka K begin with the famous binary phrase “zero one one one zero zero one one” that made the song memorable.

Several tracks have verses in other languages: “Cold Blood” in German, the 3WW version in collaboration with the French rapper Lomepal has parts in French, while the Puerto Rican PJ Sin Suelasings in Spanish in “Pleader”.

Alt-J and their collaborators introduced additional layers to every song. Whether it be musically, lyrically, with the addition of rapped verses or with the obscurity conveyed with the use foreign languages, the songs on “Reduxer” open to unexplored interpretations.

It would be interesting to read the complete lyrics to understand how the additional verses interplay with the existing ones, and how the new “musical layers” relate to and change the meanings.

As a listener, I was truly engaged in the act of making sense of this jungle of voices, languages and transitions between different genres, and this is what makes this album way more than a “collection of remixes”.

In the excitement of the exploration of what I considered to be entirely new songs, the fan side of me kept wondering: are Alt-J short of ideas for new music and are simply deferring the next album by giving their audience a sop? Or did they feel the songs on “Relaxer” had unexplored potential?

Undeniably, if “Reduxer” turns out to be a small bribe for a long wait until the next album, it surely is a good one. It is the peak of a crescendo of musical experimentation that makes every song a distinct package of innovation and sophistication, and it will only be interesting to see how far the band will take it.

Full track listing:

1. 3WW (feat. Little Simz) (OTG Version)

2. In Cold Blood (fest. Pusha T) (Twin Shadow Version)

3. House Of The Rising Sun (feat. Tuka) (Tuka Version)

4. Hit Me Like That Snare (Jimi Charles Moody version)

5. Deadcrush (feat. Danny Brown) (Alchemist x Trooko Version)

6. Adeline (feat. Paigey Cakey and Hex) (ADP Version)

7. Last Year (feat. GoldLink) (Terrace Martin Version)

8. Pleader (feat. PJ Sin Suela) (Trooko Version)

9. 3WW (feat. Lomepal) (Lomepal Version)

10. In Cold Blood (feat. Kontra K) (Kontra K Version)

11. Hit Me Like That Snare (feat. Rejjie Snow) (Rejjie Snow Version)

Tour Dates:

OCTOBER

15 Dublin Olympia

21 Glasgow Armadillo

23 Leeds Town Hall

24 Leicester De Montford Hall

25 Gatehead Sage

28 Manchester Bridgewater Hall

29 London Royal Albert Hall

Pre-order Reduxer at: https://alt-j.lnk.to/REDUXERWE

Tickets: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/search?aid=1684909&user_input=alt&q=Alt-J&tm_link=tm_header_search

Review by: Sara Paciaroni

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