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Review [published November 1999]
Kruder And Dorfmeister: The K&D Sessions
Chris Mitchell
Despite the rise of dance music in the 90s to the point
where it’s arguably overtaken rock’n’roll as the defining
sound of popular music, remixing is still something of
a dirty word. It’s unsurprising given the way pedestrian
remixes are continually used as filler on singles and
even albums when an artist has run out of inspiration to
produce anything new.
That’s not to say that there aren’t remixes which beat
the original track hands down – Fatboy Slim’s charttopping
reworking of Cornershop’s ‘Brimful Of Asha’
being a classic example – but they tend to be the sonic
exception rather than the rule. Even when remixes are
entrusted to other artists, there’s no guarantee of quality,
as exemplified by the uniformly awful mixes of
Underworld’s floorfilling anthem ‘King Of Snake’,
murdered by the likes of Dave Clarke, Slam and, er,
Fatboy Slim.
The easy way out is to produce a track that sounds
nothing like the original whatsoever. This may well
produce something musically more rewarding, but it’s
missing the real point of remixing – and that’s bringing
something new to a track without destroying what’s
there in the first place. Cue Kruder and Dorfmeister,
two DJs from Vienna who’ve quietly produced some of
the most stunning and startling remixes in the last five
years and made it their trademark to leave the spirit of
a track intact while twisting it into something utterly
different. In fact they’ve been so quiet this album came
out last year and I only heard it a month ago…
The K&D Sessions is a double CD compilation of the
best of those mixes – 140 minutes of music that takes in
artists as far apart as Roni Size, Depeche Mode, Bomb
The Bass and Bones Thugs ‘N Harmony. Citing names
is a bit pointless though, because it would be wrong to
think of The K&D Sessions as just a bunch of individual
remixes, only listening to the tracks where you’re
familiar with the original. Half the fun is that K&D
take on tracks by folk you’ve never heard of – Rainer
Trüby Trio, anyone? K&D revel in mixing all sorts of
music, whether it’s rap, jazz, jungle or whatever other
genre you care to name. As such, it’s an immaculately
crafted, unclassifiable album to get lost in, where every
track imperceptibly segues into the next so that you’re
never quite sure where you are, but wherever you are is
BUY Kruder And Dorfmeister music online from and
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