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CANDIRIA  Toying With The Insanities Volume II  LP   (Rising Pulse)   16.98


With the emergence of their own label Rising Pulse, the members of Candiria have started up a series of compilations titled Toying With The Insanities that gives them the opportunity to present fans with material from the Candiria orbit, such as remixes and solo material. The second installment in this series has a selection of well-known underground artists doing remix work on some older Candiria songs, along with instrumental solo tracks that delve deeper into the member's love of jazz fusion and ambient music.

Volume II opens with Ben Weinman of Dillenger Escape Plan doing a remix of "Paradigm Shift" (from Beyond Reasonable Doubt) , which chops up and bitcrushes the original into a splattery, mangled blast of metallic hip-hop stutter, glitches and electronic detritus furiously swirling around the jagged guitars and lightning-quick vocal sputter. The remix of "Faction (Deadverse Remix)" from Alap Momin of Dalek brings out the massive boom-bap to the forefront of the track and turns it into a noise-drenched slab of trip-hop heaviness with massive layers of MBV-level pink distortion and occasional forays into syrupy drum n bass, and is one of my favorite selections on this Lp. That's followed by "The Radio Was Dead", a solo peice from Candiria drummer Kenneth Schalk that spins off into some mysterious, murky exotica, all tribal beats and psychedelic drift. The side is then closed out by "Outerlude" from Schalk and Candiria guitarist John LaMacchia, performing another moody, spacey instrumental blues/jazz/prog fusion piece that's in the same vein as the evocative instrumentals on Candiria's last album Kiss The Lie.

The b-side begins with a dubbed-out hip-hop/techno-funk redux of "Mental Politics" from L.I.M.A., followed by a remix of "Year One" from LaMacchia that turns the original into a sweeping orchestral electronica, flecked with minimal dub beats, swells of strings, hand drums, dreamy processed trombone, and deep low-frequency throb. The last track is a new track titled "James Brown" from the improv jazz dub fusion group Ghosts Of The Canal, which features several of the Candiria guys getting very deep and very out with some sprawling, Rhodes-laced propulsive jazz and massive dub-style bass.

The sounds documented in this series will probably appeal more to fans of Candiria's more experimental side, as there's less of their math-metal heaviness going on here. Interesting stuff though, especially if you like the Ghosts Of The Canal and Spylacopa stuff that these guys have released.

Comes in a full color jacket, limited to 300 copies.