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Alter Ego
What´s Next?!
Klang CD 017



scheduled release date: may 26th 2008

1. Gary (Carl Craig Remix)
2. Why Not?! (Tim Deluxe Remix)
3. Fuckingham Palace (Nerk & Dirk Leyers Remix)*
4. Queen Anne's Revenge (Deepgroove & Jamie Anderson Remix)*
5. Jolly Joker (DJ Koze's Nuttich Styler Remix)
6. Why Not?! (Joakim Remix)
7. Fuckingham Palace (Modeselektor Remix)*
8. Jolly Joker (Supermayer Remix)
9. Why Not?! ('Artskool Dropout' Remix by Adam Sky)#
10. Gary/Boys Club (Alter Ego feat. Product 01 Version)#
11. Baby Kraut (Bonus Track)

*previously unreleased
#CD exclusive

On the album 'Why Not?!' (released 6 months ago) Jörn-Elling Wuttke and Roman Flügel confront the nervous turmoil that dissipates the dancefloors in this era of NuRave and squiggly sounds with a comprehension of techno that is as humorous as it is extreme. The album investigates the zone of indiscernibility of rave-reeling, sound exploration and roaring laughter, the tracks' coruscating humour relates directly to their brilliant sound. On the remix album 'What´s Next?!' we see 'Why Not?!' through te scope of some outstanding producers, ranging from Joakim to Deepgroove & Jamie Anderson, from Carl Craig to Supermayer. Alter Ego's imprint "Klang Elektronik" elevated the selection of these remixes to an art form: rather than merely calling in the best known names to accommodate for the varying tastes of different dancefloors, Klang curates remixes like Warhol did with concept art. Instead of just producing an electronic potpourri, the frictional surface of sound is extracted and opposing music ideologies are made productive. Instead of reducing the artistic explosiveness of the original tracks the remixers are confronted with material that agitates their philosophy of sound. The result leaves the listener amazed: without exception the most distinguished producers are instigated to deliver tracks that no one would have expected from them. There's barely a more serious way to handle Alter Ego's request to put on the fool's cap. It is a rare occurence that corny jokes and sound research, grotesque gags and mind-expanding wobble are merged so closely.

Carl Craig feeds his sampler with the glittering glamrock chunk 'Gary', and by doing this unsettling his usual elegant sound cosm. What appeared to be overtly explicit in the original now sounds mysterious, the raving bounce converted to a smart, short-winded funk. Tim Deluxe's ultra-tight groove elaborates on the exuberance of 'Why Not?!' with even less restraint. The basslines of the original 'Fuckingham Palace' compare to the choppy stumbling groove like ricochets with limitless fire-power. Nerk & Dirk Leyers have their blood boiled, expressing this via a fleeing DJ-Rush groove and smartly rendering the bassline into swarms of basslines. Deepgroove & Jamie Anderson's housebeat lulls the listener into an illusion of security - but just for the first few bars, before it is hoovercrafted away by the bassline and the sounds of 'Queen Anne's Revenge' take the lead, sounding like a persiflage of „Loosing Control“. DJ Koze, the esteemed master of pranks with a certain deepness, delivers an Afrobeat version of 'Jolly Joker', satirizing the present renaissance of Percussion House. Joakim adds only subtle changes to the basic pattern of 'Why Not?!'. The groove and the bass stabs sound more mechanic and angular, on that basis Alter Ego's humour seems even more cartoon-like. Modeselektor toll the bells of 'Fuckingham Palace' and change the original to a dubstep track, adding the pot-bellied humour of Ragga (or is it Gabba?) to this otherweise serious and gloomy genre. Supermayer work with a well measured dose of 'Jolly Joker' and out of the short patterns they extract a very special leftfield moment of pop music Kitsunés Adam Sky transforms the mania of 'Why Not?!' in that of pop music, whose emotional filaments are not woven into a song, but rather inextricably entangled. Alter Ego themselves expose 'Gary's' Glamrock moment even more obviously in the 'Boys Club' Version, by combining it with the vocals of Product 01. Alter Ego's bonus track 'Baby Kraut' has a didactic character, the initial emo-timbre tilting to Bleep.

By Alexis Waltz