If you do it, do it like this.
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| Massa Nera - "D//Q//B[2.0]" Label: DIY |
With their second full length "Derramar | Querer | Borrar" MASSA NERA released one of the Screamo-highlights from 2022. It was a long time ago when the old blend of Screamo and Post-Rock sucked me in as deep as this album did. There was this one track called "Shapeshifter", that somehow didn't go together with the coherent sentiment of the record. It was a track that quickly shifted to pure Techno/Electronica. It was at this point, where you recognized that MASSA NERA are more than just your common Screamo-band.
So, a remix album like "D//Q//B[2.0]" fits them. For the one-year-anniversary of the original album all the tracks got deconstructed and reconstructed. The special thing about it is the fact that they gave the 12 songs to 12 different artists. Nearly all of them make some kind of Electronica, though the range is quite massive, from Drum'n'Bass to Techno to Noise to Ambient to Breakbeat to 2-Step to Hardstyle, lots of different Electronica-sub-genres are being touched. Honestly, it's not as easy for me to analyze this kind of music, cause generally this isn't my territory.
What's impressive to me is, with how much enthusiasm and attention these tracks got reworked. There's not one artist who just took the track and left it in its original form, with soley adding an electronic beat on top. All the tracks got a new interpretation, some of them closer to the original, some of them sounding totally fresh. Most artists took the screamed vocals and distorted them or chopped them off. All of the tracks are pretty imaginative and very well done, so it's hard to pick standouts. We start with parts poundering, parts airy Noise in the form of "An Endless Cycle//I was more than the Weight of my Work". A slow beginning that morphs into the fresh, new version of "Hipocrita", with some 2-Step and Drum'n'Bass. The catchy synths make it quite possible the lightest moment on "D//Q//B[2.0]". Besides that, the mood of the record is for once pretty cohesive in its dark, spacey and absorbing manner and secondly it's surprisingly close to the mood of the original record. That's something that must bring the band much joy, just because how carefully the original tracks were handled. On top of it, MASSA NERA's vision was to create a cohesive work with "Derramar | Querer | Borrar" and they definitely succeeded. But what's baffling about the remix album is how well it flows despite 12 different musicians were throwing their mixes together.
To somehow continue my superficial write-up on the tracklist, other highlights to me are the relaxed version of "Adrift" or the Hip-Hop-version of "Eyeless Faces", that brings something new to the table. The ending stretch is awesome too, with the hypnotic remix of "You mean so much more than Misery to me" and the closer "Anchored", that was one of the most intense songs on the original record. They matched this intensity, kept some screams, added some rapping in the middle and a truly sinister beat near the end. And even "Shapeshifter", the track that was the "out of the box"-one on the original album, blends in smoother in this new setting.
So now, the deciding questions: Do you need this record? Normally I'd say as a Skramzhead you don't need a record like this, but then again, I surprisingly enjoy it. Do you need this if you don't know the original? That's a tough one, but personally I'd say no. I dunno if I'd have cared for this without digging MASSA NERA's record from last year, quite possibly I'd have ignored it. But... could you like this record if you have a soft spot for Electronica/Noise anyway? Definitely yes.
"D//Q//B[2.0]" is a record full of differents sites to it, yet it's consistent and tight too. But the greatest accomplishment quite possibly is the fact, that this record gives the concept of the "remix album" legitimacy.
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