Released on:
Times & Places Remixes (Sketches from the Road)
Runtime: 7:51
Now come on, that’s some lazy titling. Even ignoring the lack of definite article in the band name, literally abbreviating Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble to MPB? Hardly helps promote the track, does it?
Andy Cato is one half of middle class coffee table blandtronica act Groove Armada, who released his debut solo album in 2013. From it, one digital single was released, featuring remixes by Biosphere and The Amorphous Androgynous. After a run of multi-part, genre-bending side-long epics, the MPB mix here feels strangely underwhelming, running to less than eight minutes. Before I go any further, it’s worth mentioning that this is actually a remix of ‘Florence to Rome’, not ‘The Coastal Path’. The two tracks are musically unrelated. Anyway, the main synth riff from the original is replicated by fuzzy bass guitar and hammond organ, which play over an incredibly energetic drum performance, with guitars and flutes and the like going mad over the top. It’s your usual MPB mix affair: a break for bongos, some hammond improv, swirling analogue synths providing a touch of electronics. It actually retains a little of the multi-part structure, despite its length. In the middle, guitars fade away to allow synths and vocals from the original through, the track taking a sudden melancholic turn. More synth lines are added and it could almost be a FSOL track for a while. The band gradually returns, with some flute freakout going on at the track’s climax, and then the track fades out rather abruptly. After a few seconds of silence, a brief flute and synth reprise comes in for the final 40 seconds.
Of all the Monstrous Bubble mixes to date, this is by far the strangest: the original is very much a synthpop track, and the choice of having it remixed in the psychedelic jam band style is quite bizarre. It might also be the first time I don’t think they improved on the original: Cato’s track is quite a pleasant, if unremarkable, little song, but this remix does very little for me at all. Due to its digital release, there are no credits at all, although performances were very likely by the same musicians as the past remixes.
Tracklist
Digital download
1. The Coastal Path (Amorphous Androgynous MPB Mix)
2. Sunrise Sant Agnes (Biosphere Remix)
Fractional Difference 