Lymbyc Systym can be described as natural beauty that's captured, organized, personified and dispersed. The product channels to nerves and synapses directly, puts ease in areas where it's needed most, and judiciously congregates sounds to the effect of multi-faceted relaxation. Love Your Abuser Remixed (Mush Records) takes the beatific essence of Love Your Abuser and gives a number of friends and fellow travelers - as well as the Systym themselves - the chance to reorganize, enhance and distribute it based on their respective perspectives.
Drawing on artists who dwell in some of the same circles as them, Lymbyc Systym – a name derived from the limbic system, a set of structures in the brain heavily responsible for the functioning of our emotions and memory - has allowed for an alteration of an already-stellar album, giving others the chance to interpret and restructure according to their viewpoint. The reworked arrangements span from bedside-accompanying soothers ("Love Your Abuser [This Will Destroy You Remix]," Truth Skull [Bibio Remix]") to head-rocking concoctions of amped-up ambience ("Rest Easy/Age Kindly [Back Ted N-Ted Remix]," "Pittsburgh Left [Eliot Lipp Remix]"), but each packs a hidden treat or unexpected expansion not found on the original.
On their own remix of "Birds," Lymbyc brothers Jared and Michael Bell drop the central riff of the initial version in favor of rising and falling pianos, a distant organ and a mellower backbeat, perhaps as the other route they saw the song taking when they first wrote it. Album Leaf's remix of "Fall Bicycle," on the other hand, takes the original riff and strengthens its identity, giving it a more vibrant, defined pitch, plus some dashing drumbeats to go along with it. Tracks such as these come off as newer versions that are simply different than what they're based on, while others clearly sound like completed versions of first drafts that were intentionally left open-ended.
The "Rest Easy/Age Kindly" remix epitomizes this concept exponentially. As the opener on the original Love Your Abuser, it trails off at the moment it appears to be coming to fruition, then fades into the next track, leaving a somewhat unfulfilled sensation. As though they had plans for someone else to bring the song to the next rung, Back Ted N-Ted pick it up at that exact spot and transform it into a rocketing, bubbling, chaotic entity, entirely unlike its minimalistic starting point. It becomes an abridged but genuine trip, something rarely possible in just three minutes and fourteen seconds time.
Whether it's drastic revamps like "Astrology Days (The One AM Radio Remix)" that give trumpeters the lead in an elated elegy, or more subtle tweaks like Reference's spin on "A Day at the Beach," Love Your Abuser Remixed can serve either as an accompaniment to its untouched counterpart or as its own autonomous piece of music. Both ways, it's an absolute must-pick-up for admirers of the Lymbyc, large and small. - Jambase |
