July 22, 2005

Twin Freaks reinvents McCartney


If you're a music fan you've probably experienced the following more times than you care to remember. A track recorded by an artist from "way back when" - ie the 1960s or 1970s - is dug up and remixed in the hope that "the kids" will be persuaded to strut their stuff on the dance floor. Or said ancient artist is releasing a contemporary single that someone decides needs spicing up by a dance beat, and the dreaded "dance remix" is issued along with the regular version. Although a good remix can bring much-needed life to a certain type of recording, in these cases the results, more often than not, are at best uninspiring or at worst plain crap.

The remixes that have been released of Paul McCartney tracks over the years are a good example of this phenomenon. Frankly, I can't think of one of his songs that has benefitted from this treatment (possibly with the exception of 'Deliverance', based on excerpts of tracks from the 1993 Off The Ground album). As an ardent Beatles/McCartney fan I therefore greeted the news earlier this year that a remixer had been let loose on his entire canon with scepticism and a shrug of the shoulders. However, after seeing the track listing I was a little more curious. At least they didn't go for the most obvious hits, I thought. This could actually be mildly interesting.

The remix album in question, Twin Freaks - named after a 1990 painting by McCartney - turned out to be much more than that. The remixer, The Freelance Hellraiser aka Roy Kerr, is most well known for 'A Stroke Of Genius', his unauthorised "mash-up" of Christina Aguilera's 'Genie In A Bottle' and The Strokes' 'Hard To Explain'. Paul McCartney got wind of Kerr's mash-ups and asked him to remix a selection of tracks from the McCartney catalogue to be used as a 25-minute warm-up before shows on his 2004 tour. Apparently, Kerr was let loose in the archives and given the opportunity to choose exactly which tracks he wanted. Moreover, he was granted access to the original multitrack tapes so that he could really create new mixes from the ground up. McCartney liked the results so much that he decided to release them as a vinyl double album. Thus, the Twin Freaks album, which was released about a month ago.

The results are nothing less than astounding. What Kerr has done amounts to much more than just putting a modern dance beat to some old McCartney tracks. First of all, he didn't fall into the trap of going for the most familiar hits. On the contrary, he mostly set his sights on some of the least celebrated recordings in the McCartney catalogue, such as 'Mumbo' (from Wild Life, 1971), 'Temporary Secretary', 'Darkroom' (both from McCartney II, 1980), and 'Really Love You' (from Flaming Pie, 1997). 'Really Love You', which opens the Twin Freaks album, is an excellent example of Roy Kerr's creative genius. In its original version, the song is probably among most Macca fans' least favourite tracks on the Flaming Pie album: little more than a glorified jam session between McCartney and Ringo Starr, which seems to go on forever. But Roy Kerr must have recognised some kind of potential in the recording, and by applying his remix magic he turned it into an exciting, trashy dance track that will send you to the dancefloor instead of off to sleep.

Another example: I'm probably one of the world's biggest Wings apologists, but there are a number of tracks that I just can't stand, out of which 'Morse Moose And The Grey Goose' (London Town, 1978) is a sure-fire candidate for my bottom Top Five. But on the Twin Freaks album, Kerr has created a mash-up wherein the track billed as 'Coming Up' is actually the vocals of McCartney's 1980 hit set to the instrumental backing of 'Morse Moose And The Grey Goose' - and it works! Now, anyone who can breathe some life into that track is not only extremely talented, but also completely unprejudiced.

And that's the key to the great charm of this album. You see, it doesn't make the mistake of trying to force McCartney's music into a dance music environment, but nor does it walk on eggshells around his reputation as a music legend. It's more a like a confrontation between Roy Kerr and the Paul McCartney archives: it transcends the format of the traditional remix album to create a truly inspired collage of sounds, musical riffs and rhythms. Even though the track listing only features 12 titles, bits and pieces have been flown in from many different recordings - for the McCartney fan, songs like 'Venus And Mars', 'Band On The Run', 'Old Siam, Sir' and 'Oo You' will be highly recognisable - giving us Kerr's 2005 perspective on more than three decades of McCartney music.

Most importantly, it's done with a sense of humour and with a lack of respect - "respect" in the overly reverent sense of the word - yet with great respect for McCartney as a musician and composer. For even though Roy Kerr created the collage, McCartney's presence is strongly felt throughout the entire album. Paul's media image may be that of a megalomaniac control freak, but he was clearly relaxed enough to allow this album to be made.

If you have absolutely no interest in modern dance music culture, then this album may not be for you. Personally, I can't get enough of it. It's easily the most exciting McCartney album I've heard in a long time and so far my favourite album of 2005. Roy Kerr himself has commented, "There is such an amazing album to be made of some of Paul's unknown tracks." Well, Roy, you made that album.

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Track listing:

Really Love You
Long Haired Lady (Reprise)
Rinse The Raindrops
Darkroom
Live And Let Die
Temporary Secretary
What's That You're Doing
Oh Woman, Oh Why
Mumbo
Lalula
Coming Up
Maybe I'm Amazed