As Mortal Prophets, John Beckmann has already made a name as someone who is constantly pushing and pulling at the boundaries and sonic demarcations of the musical map. So it comes as no surprise that when he puts together an EP of covers, not only are the selections interesting, but they are also wonderfully creative reinterpretations.
Although covers may not be quite the right word here, because this is less an exercise in reverence, rather a radical creative process reworking raw sonic material.
It opens with perhaps the best-known of the songs making up this collection, “Tiny Dancer.” But, this is like no version of Elton John’s iconic song you will have heard, which is a good thing, right? After all, it would be hard to better that song in its original form, so why merely imitate when you can explore? Why dance around comfort zones and conformity when you can build a whole new, mind-blowing, musical experience? With this in mind, we get a dark-wave, Bauhausian reimagining, with its bright, spacious energies replaced by dense, dark sonics and a funereal beat.
Similarly, Brian Eno’s “Third Uncle” swaps its swirling soundscape for a more clinical, precise delivery, largely built on a brooding bassline and beguiling layers of chiming sonics.
This Axis of Eno is then extended through a wonderfully languid version of Iggy Pop’s “Sister Midnight” and a totally deconstructed rendition of “Repetition,” which somehow feels to boil down to the essence of Bowie ‘s Berlin experience almost more acutely than that iconic trio of albums.
He rounds off this extraordinary quintet of songs with “Too Many Creeps,” taking the Bush Tetras’ groove-centric, jagged, nonchalantly delivered no-wave debut single and rendering it into a claustrophobic, shuffling, psychotic diary entry!
The selections here are great, mainly quite underground tracks, even if the artists themselves are often household names (although Bush Tetras are a household name in my house, so I guess that it depends on what sort of house you live in!) But what makes this all so rewarding is that Beckmann is brave enough to visit what to many is hallowed ground and rework those songs into something that both still pays tribute to the original and yet pushes them into exciting alternative sonic lives.
It’s what he does!
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