Reads the Books EP

Prefuse 73:
Reads the Books EP

[Warp; 2005]
Rating: 7.5
There's something inherently fascinating to me about album-length remixes. The long-form remix finds one artist immersing himself completely in the work of another, struggling to find a way to inject his own ideas in an attempt to make something new, and it's fascinating to imagine someone-- whether it's Mad Professor sitting down with Massive Attack's Protection or Bill Laswell in a vault with five years worth of electric Miles Davis jams-- surveying reels of tape and dreaming of how it might all come together.

On Surrounded By Silence, Prefuse 73 included a song called "Pagina Dos", on which he further chopped the banjo and sampled voices of the Books, added beats, and layered ethereal wordless vox on top. It was one of the best tracks on the record, and now Herren follows by issuing this 22-minute EP-- eight tracks built on a foundation of Books material.

Prefuse and the Books are a good match. Herren's distinctive drum programming is mid-tempo and open, allowing plenty of room for the Books' busier samples and strings to do their thing. The emotional approaches overlap as well, as the Prefuse vibe has always contained a pastoral tint, with Herren's interest in South American and Western European folk and pop seeping into the head-nodding hip-hop. The thoughtful and studied tone of Prefuse fits snugly with Books' cleverness and whimsy.

Prefuse 73 Reads the Books is most interesting when Herren plays a shell game with the source material, letting a familiar fragment of a Books song poke out only to trim it back again with a series of sharp edits. Two key bits are pulled from the title track to The Lemon of Pink. "Pagina Seis" lets the unforgettable banjo/cello/voice sigh that opens the Books' second record in for a few seconds and then pulls it away; the ensuing drum groove is warm and comforting, relaxed beats veined with loops of guitar and banjo that are obviously Books but from no song in particular. The slow, lazy plucking that accompanies Ann Doerner on the same Books original finds its way into both "Pagina Dos" and "Pagina Ocho". On the latter, Herren smashes the notes into small ringing clusters and uses the banjo as a contrast to an original ethereal vocal from Claudia Deheza.

Nothing mind-blowing here, just an efficient EP filled with enjoyable music. Since The Books project is built on notions of appropriation and recontextualization it's obviously malleable, and Herren's breezy trip through the material feels like just another natural layer that could lend itself to further tinkering. I doubt we've heard the last of this collaboration.
- Mark Richardson, July 14, 2005