The Michigan Daily - Monday, May 8, 2006 -11 A rose by any other namTe By Kimberly Chou Daily Arts Writer MUSIC R EVI EW * * n Hype is just another four-letter word, but for Gnarls Barkley, this shit is well deserved. For months now, people - music critics, BitTorrent-abusers, those who read Pitchfork religiously, friends of those who read such media sites religiously - have been Gnarls whispering in delirious antic- Barkley ipation of the Danger Mouse/ St. Elsewhere Cee-Lo Green collaboration. Or, at least, eagerly down- Downtown loading the duo's first single, "Crazy," a chocolatey, string-based soul num- ber that climbed its way to No. 1 in the United Kingdom based on downloads alone (the first single ever to do so). An eclectic mix of hip hop, soul, funk and pop - everything Prince stands for with less sex and more humor - the debut album St. Elsewhere is nothing but eclectic, from the manic "Transformer" to the sly, gravel funk of "Boogie Monster." Of course, all of those aforementioned people could have told you everything about "Crazy," as well as the rest of the hype that's been swirling around the Danger Mouse/Cee- Lo pairing, known collectively as Gnarls Barkley. After all, Danger Mouse is the matchmaker of bastard pop's star progeny, The Grey Album, fusing Jay-Z and The Beatles; most recently, he produced a goofier, but still tightly mixed "Adult Swim" tribute with MF Doom. Mr. Green, on the other hand, is one of the seminal voices of Southern rap, back when Atlantan hip hop meant heart-threaten- ing servings of Goodie Mob's Soul Food and a pre-Hollywood OutKast. Cee-Lo is also a Danger Mouse now facing lawsuits from The Beatles, Jay-Z, Charles Barkley, successful solo singer and MC, but is on the radar as of late for writing and producing the guiltily intoxicating pop of the Pussycat Dolls' "Don't Cha" It's hard to put a finger on Gnarls Barkley. St. Elsewhere isn't quite hip hop, though both Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo are best known for their respective work in the genre. It's not as if either artist were easily categorized to begin with, and Gnarls Barkley is a fusing of two notably eccentric creative processes. Throughout the album, hints of Danger Mouse's work with Jemini and a textured Goodie Mob sound crop up periodically, even in the opener "Go Go Gadget Gospel," pro- pelled by a strung-out trumpet refrain, bells and whistles. The darkly melodic samples and strange telephone sound effects of "Just a Thought," Cee-Lo's musings on suicide, are a reminder that this was produced by the guy that laid an a capella "What More Can I Say" over one of George Harrison's most recognizable guitar lines ("While My Guitar Gently Weeps"). Cee-Lo's jazz, soul and pop influences meld together in his oft-conscious lyrics and vocals, which can dip to a respectable tenor. But when he sings, more often than not his voice sounds like Al Green run through a col- ander: reedy but still emotive. He lets it soar on the title track over langorious, wah-wah guitars and plenty of hi-hat, and even when he raps (albeit infrequently on this record) it's easy to hear his velvet-tipped syllables as on the crisp "Feng Shui." St. Elsewhere boasts, among other strange musical concoctions, a cover of the Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone" and the beach- bright "Smiley Faces," a song based on hand- claps and tambourines with a shot of '70s soul funk. "Transformer" is an amalgamation of the duo's tastes that genuinely fits its title. The ai-yi-yi chorus, the warped Cee-Lo flows - as if Danger Mouse ran his voice through a Yak-Bak - and the tight piccolo motif make for a knockout track. The only possible downside to Gnarls Bar- kley is the sheer volume of musical ingredi- ents; sometimes, the songs are overwhelmed by their makeup. Again, with the potluck of instrumentals, vocals and production effects, it's obviously difficult to place a name on the pair's sound. "I wouldn't call it schizophrenia," Cee-Lo sings on one of the numbers, not exactly aid- ing matters. But when St. Elsewhere is this inventive and entertaining, the search for a name just doesn't seem that pressing. Master mixers By Chris Gaerig AssociateArts Editor MUSIC R EV I EW kii Let's face it: Most remixes are absolutely wretched. Often, some mediocre DJ is trying to make a couple of bucks by put- ting his own shoddy production behind the latest, chart-topping Beyonce single. The DFA There are exceptions, though. The late DJ Screw created an entire Houston The DFA Remixes: subculture of remixing with his signa- Chapter One ture Screwed and Chopped style: slow- DFA ing the tracks to tortoise speed and often stringing several songs together to create a woozy, codeine- buzzed medley.But DJ Screw is one of the few artists that have done remixes well on a consistent basis. Enter The DFA. Tim Goldsworthy and James Murphy run the experimental electronic label DFA - they've been remixing club hits and signing the latest electronic artists for the past five years, making a name for themselves in the indie community. The DFA Remixes: Chapter One is the first installment in a series of albums where Murphy and Goldsworthy put their spin on music's finest (this chapter consists of tracks by Le Tigre, Gorillaz, Fischerspooner, Hot Chip and The Chemical Brothers). What's great about these remixes is that the DFA put their own insight into tracks they had nothing to do with. Chapter One is full of cuts that are often completely unrec- ognizable from the original except for a discreet bass line or occasional vocal sample. The DFA remix of the Blues Explosion's "Mars, Arizona" is a nearly 11-minute dance cut of the two-minute blues track. It completely abandons the dirty, distorted guitar lines of the original for a conglomeration of hi-hat taps, a pounding keyboard and stripped-down bass line. A similar approach is employed on Le Tigre's "Deception." While DFA prominently uses the original vocals,they still completely leave behind the guitar- driven nature of Le Tigre's version. But they don't always exchange instruments for laptops. The cover of the Gorillaz's "Dare" takes what was originally a spastic dance track and slows it to a soaring electro-pop jam. And while Chapter One is far from perfect, and the DFA probably won't make as big a splash as DJ Screw, it's refresh- ing to see a remix album without Beyonc.