Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

Architecture In Helsinki

We Died, They Remixed

Label: Moshi Moshi Music Release Date: 18/12/2006

19555
Daniel_Indeed by Daniel Ross December 18th, 2006

After having proven their intense lunacy with In Case We Die, Architecture in Helsinki are in a rather fortunate position. With love from the indie-pop crowd an absolute sure thing no matter what they do as long as it's cute and weird, they have now a carte blanche to do whatever the hell they want with themselves. And it's probably a bit soon to be dusting off the bassoons and angle-grinders just yet, so what do they give us? A load of weird remixes of the songs from an album that was pretty weird to begin with? Yeah! Good idea!

Inevitably, the madness is toned down and reined in. The multi-faceted nature of the original record is rather subdued here, but it actually provides a different focus – something unexpected, something you won't have heard on In Case We Die: AIH are secretly pop masterminds. On that album, it was all about the surface detail, the combinations of exotic instruments and the quirky arrangements. But take all those things away and you're actually left with some glorious frameworks. These are seized upon by the assembled remixers with deft abandon and pleasing admiration for their subjects. 33Hz's version of 'It'5' is particularly appealing, proving it works as a funk song re-written by The Rapture via Hot Chip, who themselves do a sterling (if overlong) job with 'Do The Whirlwind'.

With that in mind, the one element that continually takes one by surprise with this collection is the range of interpretation. Whereas remix albums are traditionally the stuff of masturbatory back-slapping (if that's even a concept), We Died, They Remixed has a genuine air of experimentation. Yacht's 'Nevereverdid' is shorn of its original manic shamanisms and psychopathic tempo changes, instead re-born as a luxuriant and dramatic series of clangs and wispy string solos, followed by an acid freakout. Now that's taking your source material and really shitting it up. To polarise, New Buffalo's treatment of the maddest track on In Case We Die, 'The Cemetery', is skilfully moulded into the kind of piano-trickling hyper-ballad that Yo La Tengo would be more than happy to call their baby.

In short, there's a lot going on here. If, like most people who heard it, you've become strangely obsessed with AIH's record, you should buy this. There are some true delights hidden in amongst the spazzed-out disco prevalence, it's merely a case of weeding them out from the majority of extremely hip and rather danceable fodder here. Pleasingly more involving than the majority of remix albums designed to fill between-album gaps, this will more than do until album number three.

  • 7
    Daniel Ross's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Drowned in Sound's Albums of the Year 2025


  • Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024


  • Drowned in Sound is back!


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing



Left-arrow

Good Shoes

The Photos On My Wall

Mobback
18780
20606

Assembly Now

Leigh-On-Sea

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Drowned in Sound's Albums of the Year 2025

  • 106149
  • news


    Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024

  • 106145

    news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143
  • news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141

    news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139
  • Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138

    Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137
  • Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136
MORE


    Interview


    DiS meets Johnny Marr: “Art and entertainment d...

  • 98039
  • Column


    Paul Draper on The Prisoner, Portmeirion and Ma...

  • 93700

    DiScussion


    Why has the world fallen under Taylor Swift's s...

  • 98271
  • Artist-generated


    Gareth Los Campesinos! interviews Paul Heaton

  • 84719

    feature


    DiS is 6: Our 66, the top six

  • 95297
  • feature


    Conversing with myself and another: DiS meets F...

  • 49768

    DiScussion


    Don't blame Radio 1: How an obsession with stat...

  • 95753
  • Interview


    Interview: Bjork talks piracy, punk, Lady Gaga ...

  • 79700
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2025 DROWNED IN SOUND