Smittens - Dancing Shoes; The Smittens Remixed

  by Tommy Gunnarsson

published: 13 / 9 / 2010

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Review

First of all, I think it’s appropriate that I confess that I’m not really a Smittens fan. I saw them perform on last year’s Cosy Den festival here in Stockholm, where they played in front of all the twee kids in Sweden (more or less), an audience that was very enthusiastic indeed. But I wasn’t very impressed, and the few songs I have heard since haven’t done a lot to turn me over to the other side. And, since I am very sceptic to the remix phenomenon, this record really shouldn’t be my cup of tea, right? Well, it’s not. But I can still find some charming sides to it. A quick look at the list of remixers tells me that the band probably had some trouble finding people to work with in this project, as two of them are Smittens members (Dana Kaplan and Colin Clary), and another is their long-time studio partner (Steve Williams). Among the remaining five contributors, we can find the quite weird James Kochalka, who makes music and comics (among other things) and Roger Gunnarsson, better known as Nixon to the world of twee pop. I mentioned that found some charming sides to this 8-track mini-album, and I guess it’s time that I tell you what they are. First of all, the Nixon remix of 'Sapphire' is great. He decided to make it in the style of (in)famous 80’s producers Stock-Aitken-Waterman (the team that brought us artists such as Kylie Minogue, Hazell Dean and Dead or Alive), which meant that the whole song is changed from the bone, and instead we get a smash hit, at least if the calendar would be showing 1986. The other moments that made me smile gently are scattered all over the EP, but all in all, it doesn’t make me want to go on a Smittens shopping spree. But, having said that, this CD will stay in my collection.

Track Listing:-

1 Party Time
2 The Garden
3 Army Of Popkids
4 Sapphire
5 Baby, Don't You Know?
6 Momus, Where Are You
7 Pretty Boy
8 Twitterpated

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/thesmittens
http://www.smittens.com/
https://twitter.com/thesmittens

Label Links:-

http://oddboxrecords.com/
https://twitter.com/oddboxrecords
https://www.facebook.com/oddboxrecords
http://oddboxrecords.bandcamp.com/