''Intimacy Remixed'' is the

remix album A remix album is an album consisting of remixes or rerecorded versions of an artist's earlier released material. The first act who employed the format was American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson (''Aerial Pandemonium Ballet'', 1971). As of 2007 ...

to ''

Intimacy An intimate relationship is an interpersonal relationship that involves physical or emotional intimacy. Although an intimate relationship is commonly a sexual relationship, it may also be a non-sexual relationship involving family, friends, or ...

'', the third album by

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band

Bloc Party Bloc Party are an English Rock music, rock band, composed of Kele Okereke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, sampler), Russell Lissack (lead guitar, keyboards), Justin Harris (bass guitar, keyboards, saxophones, backing vocals) and Loui ...

. It was released on 11 May 2009 in the United Kingdom through

Wichita Recordings Wichita Recordings is an independent record label located in London, founded in 2000 by Mark Bowen and Dick Green. Its most notable signees include Bloc Party, The Cribs, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket, Yeah Yeah Ye ...

, the band's primary label, in limited edition CD and triple LP formats to coincide with Bloc Party's worldwide touring schedule. The record entered the

UK Album Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

at number 79. In the United States, it achieved a peak of number 15 on the ''Billboard'' Dance/Electronic Albums chart. The band members gave each of the original tracks, including those on the deluxe edition of ''Intimacy'', to a number of musicians from different genres;

Mogwai Mogwai () are a Scottish post-rock band, formed in 1995 in Glasgow. The band consists of Stuart Braithwaite (guitar, vocals), Barry Burns (guitar, piano, synthesizer, vocals), Dominic Aitchison (bass guitar), and Martin Bulloch (drums). Mogw ...

Filthy Dukes Filthy Dukes are a synthpop band from London, England. The band is composed of Olly Dixon (sampling, electronic percussion, electric guitar), Tim Lawton (synthesisers, lead vocalist) and Mark Ralph (bass guitar, backing vocals). Having been acti ...

, and

No Age No Age is an American noise rock duo consisting of guitarist Randy Randall and drummer/vocalist Dean Allen Spunt. The band is based in Los Angeles, California, and was signed to Sub Pop records from 2008 to 2013. No Age's fourth studio album, ''S ...

were amongst those who reworked the songs. " Signs (Armand Van Helden Remix)" was released as a single and a music video was also made for "Ares (Villains Remix)". Critics often considered the record as a poor showcase for

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

, although a minority of reviewers commented that it was a forward-thinking piece of work.

Release

''Intimacy Remixed'' is the second remix album of Bloc Party's work following ''

Silent Alarm Remixed ''Silent Alarm Remixed'' is the remix album to ''Silent Alarm'', the debut album by British indie rock band Bloc Party. It was released on 29 August 2005 in the British Isles on Wichita Recordings, the band's primary label, and on 13 September ...

'', the remix album to debut full-length release ''

Silent Alarm ''Silent Alarm'' is the debut studio album by English rock band Bloc Party. Recorded in Copenhagen and London in mid-2004 with Paul Epworth as producer, it was released on 2 February 2005, by Wichita Recordings. The album peaked at number three ...

''. Details of the record and its track listing were confirmed on 16 March 2009 after the band's European tour in support of ''Intimacy''. Several

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

acts, DJs, and

alternative music Alternative music may refer to the following types of music: *Alternative rock *Alternative pop *Alternative R&B *Neo soul, sometimes known as alternative soul *Alternative reggaeton *Alternative hip hop *Alternative dance *Alternative metal *Chris ...

groups were asked to rework tracks. Mogwai, whose debut album ''

Mogwai Young Team ''Mogwai Young Team'' (also known as ''Young Team'') is the debut studio album by Scottish post-rock band Mogwai. Produced by Paul Savage and Andy Miller, the album was released on 21 October 1997 through the Chemikal Underground record label. ...

'' is

frontman The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

Kele Okereke Rowland Kelechukwu Okereke (born 13 October 1981), also known mononymously as Kele, is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the indie rock band Bloc Party. Early life Okerek ...

's musical "Year Zero", were drafted in to remix "Biko". "

Talons A claw is a curved, pointed appendage found at the end of a toe or finger in most amniotes (mammals, reptiles, birds). Some invertebrates such as beetles and spiders have somewhat similar fine, hooked structures at the end of the leg or tarsus ...

(Phones R.I.P Remix)" is ''Intimacy'' co-producer

Paul Epworth Paul Richard Epworth (born 25 July 1974) is an English record producer, songwriter, musician, and remixer. He has worked with artists including Adele, Florence and the Machine, Rihanna, and Maxïmo Park, among many others. He is a member o ...

's last song remix under the "Phones" name.

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

's reaction to the release news was mixed; Tom Breihan indicated that the concept could be successful, but noted that the idea of remix albums in rock music has become stagnant. Bloc Party spent much of March and April 2009 touring in the US and Canada in support of ''Intimacy Remixed''. The band members invited fans attending their one-off

London Olympia Olympia London, sometimes referred to as the Olympia Exhibition Centre, is an convention center, exhibition centre, event space and conference centre in West Kensington, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, London, England. A ran ...

concerts on 11–12 April to film the performances on their mobiles and send the recordings to the band online. A music video for "Ares (Villains Remix)" was created by collating the resulting footage and was

webcast A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand. Essentially, web ...

. "Signs (Armand Van Helden Remix)" was released as a promotional single on 27 April 2009. ''Intimacy Remixed'' was released in Europe on 11 May 2009. The album was distributed in the rest of the world on 26–27 May but no physical copies were released on US record labels. The

cover art Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper ( tabloid), comic book, video game (box art), music album (album art), ...

is a negative of the close-up of a couple kissing by

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

photographer Perry Curties used on ''Intimacy''.

Critical reception

Media response to ''Intimacy Remixed'' was generally negative:

AnyDecentMusic? AnyDecentMusic? is a website that collates album reviews from magazines, websites, and newspapers. Primarily focused on popular music – covering rock, pop, electronic, dance, folk, country, roots, hip-hop, R&B, and rap – albums are adjudg ...

sums up critical consensus as a 2.9 out of 10, based on five reviews, making it one of the lowest-rated albums on the site. Emily Tartanella of

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

explained that the remixers' efforts ultimately make Bloc Party's work "less engaging, less meaningful". Ben Patashnik of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' stated that the album is largely monotonous and includes too many pedestrian experiments in dance music.

Drowned in Sound ''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums. History ''D ...

's Chris Power indicated that "in putting their names to the album Bloc Party seem to be saying they either don't care about what they ask fans to spend their money on or they don't know much about electronic music".

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

's Lou Thomas was more receptive and commented that ''Intimacy Remixed'' is unprecedented in its field and entirely better than ''Intimacy''. James Hendicott of

State.ie State.ie (formerly ''State Magazine'') was an Republic of Ireland, Irish website and, before, a monthly music magazine. It launched in April 2008 and switched to online-only distribution in January 2009 after having published a total of ten iss ...

described the album as "something special" that should appeal to both Bloc Party fans and dance music lovers due to its "highly listenable, subtly energetic sound". Pitchfork Media's Ian Cohen was largely disappointed with the record and concluded, "Remix albums all but acknowledge their own inessentiality—why not take more chances when only the diehards are going to subject themselves to 60 minutes of someone else's idea of what ''Intimacy'' could sound like?"

Composition

Electronic music duo Villains reworked "Ares" by replacing the

big beat Big beat is an electronic music genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to acid house/techno. The term has been used by the British music industry to describe music by artists such as ...

percussion of the original with

electronic drums Electronic drums is a modern electronic musical instrument, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit. Electronic drums consist of an electronic sound module which produces the synthesized or sampled percussion sound ...

and synthesisers. The result was compared to the music of French band

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

by Lou Thomas of the BBC. British DJ

Hervé Hervé is a French language, French masculine given name of Breton language, Breton origin, from the name of the 6th-century Breton Saint Hervé. The common latinization of the name is Herveus (also ''Haerveus''), an early (8th-century) latinizati ...

's mix of

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

" removes the

horns Horns or The Horns may refer to: * Plural of Horn (instrument), a group of musical instruments all with a horn-shaped bells * The Horns (Colorado), a summit on Cheyenne Mountain * ''Horns'' (novel), a dark fantasy novel written in 2010 by Joe Hill ...

of the original and instead includes

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

in an

electro house Electro house is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by heavy bass and a tempo around 130 beats per minute. The term has been used to describe the music of many ''DJ Mag'' Top 100 DJs, including Benny Benassi, Skrillex, Steve Aoki ...

-like composition. We Have Band's version of "Halo" is the only dub song on the ''Intimacy Remixed'' and incorporates a

modulating In music, modulation is the change from one tonality ( tonic, or tonal center) to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature (a key change). Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as ...

synth line on top of cut-up vocals. Alex Hibbert of Rockfeedback noted its "euphoric" percussion. Scottish

post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...

ers Mogwai infused Bloc Party's blueprint in "Biko" with

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

elements.

"Trojan Horse" was given a

drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

reworking by English DJ

John B John Bryn Williams (born 1977), known as John B, is an English disc jockey and electronic music producer. He is widely recognised for his eccentric clothing and wild hair and his production of several cutting edge drum and bass tracks. John B ...

, while another U.S. DJ, Armand Van Helden, remixed " Signs" through the inclusion of

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

beats and studio effects such as

high-pass filter A high-pass filter (HPF) is an electronic filter that passes signals with a frequency higher than a certain cutoff frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies lower than the cutoff frequency. The amount of attenuation for each frequency d ...

Synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

group Filthy Dukes took charge of "

One Month Off "One Month Off" is the third single from Bloc Party's third album, ''Intimacy''. It was released on 26 January 2009 on 7-inch vinyl and digital download. The music video was made bTeam D.A.D.D.Yand features footage from Ray Harryhausen's fairy ...

" and created an electro house version of the track according to Chris Power of Drowned in Sound. Paul Epworth's "Talons (Phones R.I.P Remix)" contains samples from "You Don't Know Nothing About Love" by Carl Hall and the use of a

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

. "Better Than Heaven" was remixed by American

noise pop Noise pop is a subgenre of alternative and indie rock that developed in the mid-1980s in the United Kingdom and United States. It is defined by its mixture of dissonant noise or feedback with the songcraft more often found in pop music. Shoegazi ...

duo No Age and begins with a rhythmic pattern on the piano. The song features

feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...

, distorted drumming, and backmasked vocals. London-based Italian solo act Alessio Andalusia, under his Banjo or Freakout alias, provided the remix for "Ion Square" and created an

ambient Ambient or Ambiance or Ambience may refer to: Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgrounds * Ambient music, a genre of music that puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere * ''Ambient'' (album), by Moby * ...

version of the original. The track infuses Bloc Party's blueprint with keyboards,

looped ''Looped'' is a play by Matthew Lombardo about an event surrounding actress Tallulah Bankhead. It had a Broadway run in 2010, after two previous productions in 2008 and 2009, all three of them featuring Valerie Harper. Plot Based on a real even ...

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

, and ethereal vocals. Power concluded, "By taking the percolating synth from the end of the original version and wrapping the sweet

ee cummings Edward Estlin Cummings, who was also known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. cummings and e e cummings (October 14, 1894 - September 3, 1962), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobi ...

-borrowed lyric—"I carry your heart here with me"—in a dense cloud of treated, looped guitar, he produces a remix that ... offers an interesting, possibly even superior, reading of its source material." Album closer "Your Visits Are Getting Shorter (Optothetic Remix)" was named as a "generic commercial dance music" song by Lee White of

This Is Fake DIY ''DIY'' is a United Kingdom-based music publication, in print and online. Its free print edition is released monthly with a physical circulation of 40,000 in UK venues, clubs and shops. DIY Magazine ''DIY'' was launched in 2002 by then-editor ...

Track listing

All songs originally written and composed by Bloc Party and remixed by each credited artist. * The limited edition UK triple LP version and the Japanese edition include "Your Visits Are Getting Shorter" (Double D Remix) as track 13. Bonus tracks on the Japanese edition #

"Talons" (Acoustic) – 4:32 #"Signs" (Acoustic) – 3:24

Release history

Chart positions

Album Singles "—" denotes releases that did not chart.

References

External links

''Intimacy Remixed'' press release
at Bloc Party official site
''Intimacy (Remixed)'' lyrics
at Bloc Party official site {{Authority control Bloc Party remix albums 2009 remix albums Wichita Recordings remix albums Albums produced by Paul Epworth Albums produced by Jacknife Lee Electro house remix albums