Guerolito

All-star producers garnish Beck's originals with their own spices

Just as the Best Of/Greatest Hits collection has been the in thing to release in 2005, the remix album has enjoyed a minor resurgence. The likes of Sarah McLachlan, Bloc Party, The Roots and Death From Above 1979 have all released remix albums in the past few months. Now Mr. Beck Hansen joins the fray. The thing that separates Beck from the rest, however, is that Guerolito is a remix of his album Guero delivered in the same sequencing order as the original. So while others have essentially dropped remix collections, Beck has kicked out a tasty re-envisioning of his latest album. It would be hard to improve on his gold-certified Guero, a drowsy collection of crunchy guitar, Spanish flourishes, '50s vocal refrains and his most seductive tool, his own low-toned vocals. Luckily, Guerolito does not try. Instead, the all-star producers simply garnish the shaggy one's originals with their own spices. Beck got it exactly right when he added the Spanish diminutive “lito” to the title of his remixed version of Guero: stripped-down and amped-up, Guerolito is like Guero's spazzy, endearing little brother.

Several tracks equal or trump their initial incarnations

Gone is the springtime whimsy and the breezy melodies of Guero; on Geurolito they are buried beneath the grit and grumble of other producers. The reinventions that fare best are the ones that come from the minds and hands of producers who dare to alter the attitude of the original compositions. Rather than reworking the lighthearted music of Guero, they chose to drag a bit more darkness into the mix, matching the seriousness of certain songs with slightly-sinister accompaniment. The lineup here is especially enticing given the wealth of performers who are either particularly relevant (Diplo, Boards of Canada) or have been absent too long (Air, Unicorns offshoots Islands and Th’ Corn Gangg). The theme among mixers here seems to be addition, often supplementing Guero’s mix with something that adds thickness: soupy keyboards, busy percussion, bulbous bass. Several tracks equal or trump their initial incarnations by emphasizing pluses and playing into their remixers' entrenched strengths. Dreamy electronic outfit Air breathes more oxygen into the already-floating Missing, while Beastie Boys Ad Rock replaces the nervous drums of Black Tambourine with a laid-back, intergalactic groove. Boards of Canada turn Broken Drum into a funeral dirge, one held on an iceberg in Antarctica in the dead of night. And Homelife rethinks the hit single E-Pro as an ambling, Casio-toned trip, instead of a guitar-heavy modern-rock anthem.

Guerolito re-instills some faith in the art of the remix

Guerolito is a studio-geek jam session that, in terms of sonic inventiveness, nearly beats the DJ-savvy original. Due to the eclectic nature of the remixers, an album is vastly different than the roots from which it sprang and an endeavor that re-instills some faith in the art of the remix. All too often these days a "remix" consists of nothing more than amped up basslines, snare drum drop-ins and speeded up vocals. Here, you really have to ping-pong back and forth to the original album just to make sure you're hearing the same songs. Despite the hodgepodge of producers compiled here (and hand-picked by Beck), the remix album is cohesive. Where Guerolito could have been a half-assed attempt at re-igniting interest in Beck's Guero, it instead reveals itself to be a creative well-spring, an album that lives up to the innovative hum rush of Odelay and the beguiling quietude of Sea Change. It also shows how an artist's work can be enhanced by outside interlopers; aural bandits who want nothing more than to bring a fresh outlook to somebody else's material. Turns out Guero is like a burrito: it tastes just as good with different fillings.