Nearly all of
Moby
's major full-lengths since his 1995 critical breakthrough
Everything Is Wrong
have been accompanied by remix albums, ambient translations, or other reworks of his material.
Reprise
, released by
Deutsche Grammophon
in 2021, consisted of full orchestral re-recordings of his most familiar songs (as well as a cover of "Heroes" by primary influence and close friend
David Bowie
), accompanied by a cast of guest vocalists including
Gregory Porter
,
Mark Lanegan
, and
Jim James
.
Reprise Remixed
focuses on nine of the songs from
, with several appearing in multiple versions. Many of the remixers attempt to do something new with the source material, which is welcome, since even the most casual
listener has heard the original versions of these songs countless times. "Go," for instance, has seen an infinite number of remixes since it jump-started
's career in the early '90s, and he impressively manages to refresh the song with his own "Trophy Mix" (presumably named after his short-lived underground
Mute
sublabel,
Trophy Records
). The track starts out with heavy bongos, shakers, and kick drums, taking more than two minutes to arrive at its dramatic
Twin Peaks
melody, and splendidly combining orchestral grandeur with raw beats.
Anfisa Letyago
's mix of the same song is more subtle and levitating, only briefly working in that haunting string melody. The most radical deconstruction on the album is
Bambounou
's take on "Porcelain," which submerges
's and
' vocals in ring-modulated glitchiness and
Richard D. James Album
-style skittery breaks.
Efdemin
also contributes two contrasting versions of "Porcelain," a hypnotic minimal techno mix followed by a much more relaxed
Kruder & Dorfmeister
-esque dub. The biggest, boldest house tracks on the release are the reinterpretations of the gospel-derived hits from
Play
, although
's own "West Side Highway Remix" of "Natural Blues" goes for more of an organic, guitar-based funk angle, and
Max Cooper
pulls the song apart with excessive time-stretching on the vocals, eventually heating it up to a fervor with stomping beats and atmospheric strings. As with nearly all remix albums, particularly ones with multiple versions of the same songs,
is uneven, but it's much more varied and surprising than the faithful, big-stage adaptations of
, and it does find creative ways to approach well-worn material from a variety of fresh perspectives. ~ Paul Simpson