{"id":193,"date":"2008-09-11T13:11:13","date_gmt":"2008-09-11T18:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whiskeyclone.net\/papertiger\/?p=193"},"modified":"2008-09-11T13:11:13","modified_gmt":"2008-09-11T18:11:13","slug":"the-beck-oeuvre-10-alarm-call-bjeck-mix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whiskeyclone.net\/papertiger\/2008\/09\/11\/the-beck-oeuvre-10-alarm-call-bjeck-mix\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beck Oeuvre #10: Alarm Call (Bjeck mix)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Not a Beck song, this is Beck’s remix of Bjork’s “Alarm Call” from her album Homogenic<\/i>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

As for the track itself:<\/p>\n

AlmostAGhost<\/b>:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/i>. Now Bjork is singing “this is enlightenment” and Beck puts some electronica and some piano behind her. Beck talks nowadays (for Modern Guilt<\/i>) 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<\/i>-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!<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Newt<\/b>:<\/p>\n

Homogenic<\/i> is not my favourite Bj\u00c3\u00b6rk album (though it’s a close second behind Post<\/i>) and ‘Alarm Call’ is not my favourite track on Homogenic<\/i>. 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.<\/p>\n

Actually, scratch that. Here’s what I like about it:<\/p>\n