Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve - Re-animations, Volume 1

Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve will be known to many by their alter egos Erol Alkan and Richard Norris.  Erol is one of the darlings of the underground electro scene, and the man behind legendary London club nights Trash and Durrr (both at the now sadly defunct End nightclub).  Richard will be best known as one half of The Grid (the other half was Soft Cell’s Dave Ball), who had a string of dance hits in the 90s, including the unforgettable Swamp Thing:

As with many other DJs, Alkan slips into a different moniker every time he wants to explore a different musical direction.  Unlike the pseudo-funk of Mustapha 3000, Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve sees him and Norris in full-on psychedelia mode.  Original tracks are split into their musical components, and then stretched, flipped, smoked, and put back together into something resembling much more the soundtrack to a lazy summer’s day than a simple reworking of the original.  Witness the reanimation of Late of the Pier’s ‘Here Come the Bears’, its running time extended by twice as much, and the original track almost lost amongst live elements that turn it into a trippy stomp around the campfire.  Going one step further, any trace of Franz Ferdinand on recent single ‘Ulysses’ is practically entirely removed, a single line from the track all that is left to remind people that Alex Kapranos existed at all, like a footprint stubbornly resisting being swept away by the incoming tide.

 It was actually the first track on the album, a dark, deep reimagining of the Chemical Brothers’ ‘Battle Scars’, that really got me into the duo, and this is the one I’m offering up today.  The straight bassline of the original is jettisoned in favour of a minor synth line, bongos and drawn-out cymbal splashes.  Whereas the original sounded introverted and personal, this is something else all together.  Portentous, the mood perfectly suited to the ominous lyrics ‘it’s the final charge, here come battle scars’.

Chemical Brothers - Battle Scars (Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve Re-Animation)

Highly, highly recommended.  You can grab the album at HMV (other music outlets are available), or head over to the podcast page on Erol’s website to download a fantastic live mix from the duo at The Zodiac in Oxford.  It features several of the mixes from the album, and is the mix that got me into them in the first place.

Enjoy!