Without You
*Without You* isn\'t quite a second album so much as a companion piece to King Midas Sound’s 2009 debut, *Waiting for You*. But you needn\'t be familiar with the latter to dig the former. King Midas Sound’s Kevin Martin (a.k.a. The Bug) assembled a stellar team to have a go remixing their favorite selections from *Waiting for You*. It starts with a reworking of “Goodbye Girl” by Jamie Teasdale (a.k.a. Kuedo); vocals by both Martin and chanteuse Kiki Hitomi get pitched up a bit, so she inadvertently sounds like androgynous Sigur Rós singer Jón Þór “Jónsi” Birgisson over distorted bass synths and beefed-up drums. Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe’s take on the same song sounds like something completely different. He chops away all the business to rebuild the foundation with a spacy drone and low, buzzing sci-fi minimalism. Conversely, Mala’s reinterpretation of “Earth a Kill Ya” weaves in gradually building dubstep, and Ras G & The Afrikan Space Program Rework turn “Cool Out” into an aural assault of wonderfully tangled psychedelic madness.
For all its eerie qualities, King Midas Sound's Waiting for You was just as striking in spatial terms. Making use of that roominess, this remix album pulls off the rare feat of adding to its source material's mystique without displacing it.
The softness that he ushered in with his [a]King Midas Sound[/a] project, a collaboration with sugar-voiced street poet Roger Robinson, was something new, however.
AllMusic provides comprehensive music info including reviews and biographies. Get recommendations for new music to listen to, stream or own.
King Midas Sound were borne when Kevin Martin (brainchild of dancehall act The Bug) was searching for vocalists for ‘London Zoo’. Enter Roger Robinson; the partnership was founded.
It seems a little strange on the surface, releasing a remix version of an album that is two years old.
A cast of hundreds surprisingly coheres in apocalyptic dub project. CD review by Joe Muggs