Intended as a companion EP for Neon Indian’s 2011 album Era Extraña, ERRATA ANEX (meaning ‘compiled errors’) is a collection of five remixed tracks. Neon Indian’s style is a sort of psychedelic eighties retro-future pop, and while the term “remix” usually conjures up the idea of a song respliced for the dancefloor, these tracks vary interestingly across different styles and genres. Optimo’s mix of “Polish Girl” disperses the track’s original melody across a diffused electro soundscape of hollow ambiances and raining percussion. Both Boyd Rice’s “Halogen” and Patten’s “Heart Release” remixes are just mere shadows of their original selves, as the former marauds madly through haunting percolations and crushed beats while the latter hazily swims towards a mystical eighties horizon. Actress’ remix of “Blindside Kiss” is almost more a cover—it extracts the original track’s vocal melody from out of the deluge of abrasive distortion and lays it in a soft, minimalistic bed of sparse percussion and static ambiance. Twin Shadow’s “Hex Girlfriend” however is the only remix that truly competes with the original; employing canorous organs, trilling strings, and epically crushed percussion, it instrumentally reimagines the futuristic synth-madness of its subject to achieve a raw and exciting new flavor for the song.
You can stream Twin Shadow’s remix of “Hex Girlfriend” below.
