Even though they've been banging out some of the best minimal techno of the past couple years, the Wighnomy Bros. and Robag Wruhme still aren't exactly household names. I was a little late to the party on Wruhme's killer solo album Wuzzelbud "KK" (which sounded sorta like the music that Aphex Twin would be making if he still was pushing forward) but based on the big names on Remikks Potpourri II, everyone is clamoring to get these guys to smash up their music and see what they do with it. In addition to Ellen Allien & Apparat, they bounce tracks by big names like Underworld, Depeche Mode, and Nitzer Ebb (among others) off the wall.
Apparently, the batch of remixes covers a pretty wide range of time, because the ten-track release opens with yet another version of "Lifeforms" by Future Sound Of London. Considering the song has already been remixed about ten times, it may seem like overkill, but like most of their work they take the track to someplace completely new, leaving the original almost unrecognizable in the process. One of the first killer reworks is Wruhme's take on Jean-Paul Bondy's "Something Is Not Right," and it's here that one really gets a sense of his amazing production techniques as hard-panned and gated sounds careen off one another wildly, creating dizzying negative space while still managing to keep things supremely funky.
One of their more straightforward takes is on "We Shall Overcome" by Gustav, and it's here that the duo smooth off the edges and slide the original into one of their slippery-smooth house-laced tracks. Along with the stream-of-consciousness vocals tinged with political activism, the minimal bursts of repetitive melody simply stick in your craw. I mentioned Depeche Mode earlier, and the previously-unreleased remix of "Lilia" by the duo is also a standout on the release, taking a completely different direction than most of their work as it slows things down to a molasses pace and layers in smokey wisps of strings and synths behind a slow-motion beat.
Many of the remixes on the release are exclusive to this collection, and interestingly enough one of the best tracks on the entire release arrives in the form of a hidden track. Perhaps as a little taster teaser for a forthcoming album (we can all hope so), Wrume throws out the exclusive track "Bakkenvesper," and it's absolutely killer, sounding something like a cross between the insanely programmed house licks of his debut album and Venetian Snares. Like most remix compilations, there are a couple spots that sag a bit, but as a whole Remikks Potpourri II is a great collection of reworked music from two of the better artists in the field right now.
