The Beck Oeuvre #10: Alarm Call (Bjeck mix)

Not a Beck song, this is Beck’s remix of Bjork’s “Alarm Call” from her album Homogenic.

The only other relation I can think of between the two is this photoshoot from which I’ve included a couple of photos. I can’t recall if there was an actual dual interview or not.

As for the track itself:

AlmostAGhost:

I’ll be honest. I have this CD single, but not only do I have no idea where it is, I probably haven’t listened to it since I bought it whenever it came out (and I don’t even remember when that was exactly–I think I was living in Boston at the time, so maybe 2001 or so?). So I haven’t quite lived with this song like I have most the other Beck ones we discuss. I vaguely remember some sound effects that Beck used, but fear I’m mixing that up with a different Beck remix. Could I be more useless here today? I’ll make up for that in the next paragraph.

I did, however, just *ahem* obtain *ahem* a copy of the track and am about to listen to it right now! Enthralling, I know! The track starts out spacey, like the theme to Star Trek. Now Bjork is singing “this is enlightenment” and Beck puts some electronica and some piano behind her. Beck talks nowadays (for Modern Guilt) about keeping his songs simple, cutting out the extra chaff, getting to the core of a song. This remix is nothing like that. The beats are still going, and I am getting used to them and their clutter by now, but I can’t say I love it. There does not feel like there was any sort of cohesive idea behind what Beck was doing, and neither was it done in a cool “throw in the kitchen sink”-Odelay-collage way. I guess it falls somewhere in between those two. Now Bjork is singing about a mountaintop as Beck drops some Spanish guitar flamenco-style on there, whoa where’d that come from? I’m no fucking Buddhist, but this is enlightenment!

Oh yea, turns out those effects I was thinking of in the earlier paragraph are from a different remix–but I have no idea which one.

Newt:

Homogenic is not my favourite Björk album (though it’s a close second behind Post) and ‘Alarm Call’ is not my favourite track on Homogenic. Similarly, I don’t tend to love Beck’s remixes and the ‘Bjeck Mix’ is not my favourite remix that he has done. What I’m trying to say is this: ‘Alarm Call (Bjeck Mix)’ is a steaming pile of mediocrity. I don’t actively dislike anything about it, but I definitely don’t find much to like about it either.

Actually, scratch that. Here’s what I like about it:

  • The name: “Bjeck” is a fun blend, and came years before Brangelina and Bennifer and all those things.
  • The latin themed last 45 seconds or so. Fun!

That’s it! Didn’t Beck and Björk fight it out in Celebrity Deathmatch?

Here’s a shitty picture I drew:

Björk’s whole face is really screwed up there, as is her whole body, but I really didn’t feel like redrawing it.

3 Responses to “The Beck Oeuvre #10: Alarm Call (Bjeck mix)”

  1. Beckish says:

    BJerk
    Blah
    Bluu
    blee
    bejerkie
    tofukey

  2. Beckish says:

    and the Boobs are to BIG!!

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