Nonclassical Presents: The Art of Remix

Liner Note Author: Sam Mackay.
Photographers: Dimitri Djuric; Iain McQueen.
Tweed-wearing purists should note the label's name, Nonclassical, and know that this remix set was spawned from "classical club-nights," a phrase that is missing the qualifier "-tinged" after the word "classical." These short and sweet selections from the Nonclassical stable are primarily driven by electronica and sometimes dance music, plus the Prokofiev here is the hip-hop producer Gabriel and not his commonly known grandfather Sergey. The marquee names come from the world of edgy pop, with Hot Chip, Murcof, Radiohead's Thom Yorke, and Medasyn (an alias for Gabriel) handling the remixing, and while all of them turn in highlights, it is the lesser-known Cerebral Productions who steal the show with their stuttering, Art of Noise-styled tactics employed on the opening "Concerto for Turntables" from the Heritage Orchestra with DJ Yoda. For a club-inspired set, there's a surprising amount of brittle music here, with most of the original recordings reduced to shards, so expect something much more prickly than a Buddha-Bar set, something much less cute than Clean Bandit, and something much more complicated and artistically deep than what's found on the Ministry of Sound label. ~ David Jeffries