Album Review : X by She Past Away (remix album)

Turkish band She Past Away has been credited with being the catalyst for the revival of the post-punk/goth/darkwave scene in the 2010’s, with a distinctive sound that appeals as much to older fans reconnecting to the scene through the wonders of social media as to word-of-mouth trendy young basement alternative club movers and shakers.  Having spaced their opening trilogy of albums in an Olympian manner, with Belirdi Gece (recorded in 2011), followed by Narin Yalnızlık (released in 2015) and then Disko Anksiyete (2019), the duo are back on the scene more quickly than expected to celebrate their tenth anniversary, albeit with a remix album (X), which although covering tracks dating back to initial EP Kasvetli Kutlama (2010), nevertheless continues the more deliberately dancefloor-oriented direction of their most recent album.

Having aired my ambivalent views on the whole concept of the remix album at some length in this blog’s recent review of the Antipole release Perspectives II, I must say at the outset that this double album is one of the best examples of the genre which I have heard, with most tracks not only instantly recognisable but also enhanced and updated by the remixers.

This is almost certainly entirely due to the breadth and sheer quality of the remixers involved, a veritable “who’s who?” of the darkwave scene of the last forty (although particularly the last five) years, ranging from wave veterans Clan of Xymox and Front 242 to the likes of Kill Shelter and Ash Code.

The tone is set from the opening track, The Soft Moon’s remix of Ritüel which features his usual disconcerting pitch-bending bass-heavy dubstep-inspired brilliance, with Volker Caner’s now-isloated vocal adding to the song’s sense of emotional claustrophobia. Vancouver-based remixer FM Attack’s take on SPA’s iconic Asimilasyon respects the classic melody and reverberating charm of the original, whilst opting for a more plinky-plonky (apologies to any laymen for my use of technical language) keyboard approach, emphasising its dancefloor appeal.

The first real surprise of the album is Deer Dear’s version of Ruh, which is rightly listed as a cover rather than a remix, with the duo adding a new French language vocal to a more distorted backing, with the repeated chorus “Je reviendrai” prominent in a very successful marriage of the new and the old.

Boy Harsher’s Durdu Dünya and Tobias Bernstrup’s Kasvetli Kutlama are more straightforward dancefloor-oriented remixes (and therefore to me personally, less interesting), the former darker and more regimented than the original, the latter a light disco synthwave interpretation. The following track is one of two equally straight extended remixes of tracks from Disko Anksiyete by DJ Fn1, the first the title track, and the second La Maldad, which add disco beats and beeps to what are essentially largely the original tracks.

Only seven tracks in and we already have our first repeat, with Ruh now remixed by Bragolin, the Dutch act successfully introducing their own trademark slightly distorted staccato guitar style to the mix, resulting in a less-polished, more low-fi but still "full" production which retains the original’s twists and turns with aplomb. Next up is the first of two remixes by SPA themselves, with La Maldad’s Alan Vega-esque guitar lines replaced by sequenced keyboards for the dancefloor, whilst later in the set we are treated to a more minimalist take on the second album’s title track which allows Caner’s beautifully reverberated guitar line to shine through.

Approaching the middle of the twenty-two track album the big names arrive thick and fast, with a pleasingly stark take on Izole from Lebanon Hanover followed by French post-punk act RENDEZ VOUS’s disappointingly ambient remix of  Disko Anksiyete and a Front 242 remix of Kasvetli Kutlama which reduces the powerful charm of the original tune in a 90’s remix of bleeps and whirrs.

Having dipped significantly after a promising start,  the album is salvaged by some further excellent celebrity remixes, with Clan of Xymox’s Ronny Moorings sensibly retaining the guitar line in Sanri whilst enhancing the original with some “Da Da Da” style old school bleeps and a more solid bassline, with bandmate Mario Usai submitting a superb remix of Hayaller which is X’s penultimate cut, turning the pleasant but rather spartan original into a full-on 80’s-style old school goth slow-burner with a modern twist.

Album highlight Kill Shelter’s remix of Soluk is even better adding a flanged riff reminiscent of The Sisters of Mercy and slowing down the original backbeat at times to produce a wall-of-sound version that is suitably deeper and darker but crucially also more danceable. Sonbahar from SPA’s most recent album already had an Antipole feel, and the Norwegian artist and his usual collaborator Paris Alexander accentuate the bouncing nature of the original guitar riff and gives the track a more relaxed feel.

Italian wave act Ash Code also distinguish themselves, giving Katarsis the full Moroder sequencer treatment, with a strong synth bassline whilst successfully retaining both the melody and atmosphere of the original, and Kasvetli Kutlama (making its third appearance) also gets a discofied bassline in New York DJ Martial Canterel’s interestingly angular remix, whilst Sun’s Spectrum also add an extra electronic impetus to flesh out a sparse Monoton, which now starts with a delightfully scuzzy bass riff.

Greek post-punk band Selofan add one of the album’s most delightful surprises with a dark remix of Renksiz, one of the last album’s lighter moments, beefing it up with an enhanced atmospheric bassline, stronger beat and extra keyboard layers, and the album ends strongly with QUAL’s remix of Boşluk, the Lebanon Hanover star bringing the Nephilimistic guitar riff of Disko Anksiyete’s instrumental opener to the start of a very extended version before introducing a more typically harsh metronomic backbeat as the song heads off in a more electro direction.

As well as restoring She Past Away’s reputation after the lukewarm reaction to their last album in the darkwave community, the differing styles of the various remixes on X will hopefully help to carry the band (and the genre)’s music beyond the straitjacket of the slowly-growing post-punk ghetto to the more mainstream audience which would surely appreciate their well-written and easy-on-the-ear style.

On an equally positive note, the album has already sold out its vinyl limited edition and only a handful of CDs remain via their Bandcamp page.