Although I recognize the necessity of re-releasing previously self-released records when artists get signed or get big, as someone who’s job it is to give a crap about when exactly an album came out, it can be a little annoying to deal with these discrepancies. Bear In Heaven’s move to re-release their breakthrough record Beast Rest Forth Mouth (like the cardinal directions “East West North South,” geddit?) a little under a year after its original road to acclaim, is an understandable one; the Hometapes label can rake in more cash while the Brooklyn-via-Georgia-and-Alabama band gets to up the quality of the LP they’re selling at merch tables and record stores across the world.
But what makes BRFM’s reissue a commodity in and of itself is that it comes packaged with Beast Rest Forth Mouth: Remixed, 10 reimaginings from Twin Shadow, High Places, Deru, Justin K. Broadrick, The Field, BRAHMS, and others. These tracks push what was already fairly dance-driven fare well into house territory as remixes are wont to do. Although the original BRFM was synthy and anthemic, it remained more solidly in the realm of new wave and psych pop — sometimes even going tribal. Unsurprisingly, then, the album’s strongest tracks succeed equally on Remixed. Twin Shadow’s take on nostalgic single “Lovesick Teenagers” utilizes orphaned vocal samples and dissonant layering to great effect. Likewise, Pink Skulls’ “Wholehearted Mess” remix pulls directly from the strength of the original composition, with its manic drumming and warped echoing.
Conversely, there’s the BRAHMS version of “Fake Out” which bubbles, bouncing with energy even though it’s a lot thinner than the original’s overpowering wall of synths. And the Studio remix of “You Do You” subverts all lyrical emphasis and turns the very idea of the song on its end, an exercise reminiscent of Yeasayer’s Odd Blood.
Admittedly, I don’t have a lot of personal use for ten remixes back-to-back outside the context of a sweaty club or dance party in my living room. But the fact that this double album will increase the profile of the original Beast Rest Forth Mouth — one of my favorite records of 2009 — is something I can get behind. It’s been fascinating to watch the band’s trajectory from down south art school grads, videographers, and graphic designers to Brooklyn residents plugged into the scene — suddenly racking in the type of publicity that’s allowed them to tour repeatedly behind acts like Crystal Castles. Bear In Heaven deserves any dance party they can get.
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