Bloc Party, Silent Alarm Remixed

Bloc Party
Silent Alarm Remixed
Vice Recordings

Kele Okereke proposes Bloc Party is a post-modern band seeking to stretch its musical direction seemingly away from its Gang of Four and Sonic Youth influences.

That's all fine and well, but does a band with one full-length album and two EP's really need to release a remix album of its debut? Even if it signals the possible plot turn Bloc Party may take with its next effort?

The marketers had their way, so the album is on the shelves, but "Silent Alarm Remixed" would have sufficed as a fan club-only release. Regardless, the album flips the South London outfit's well-received debut, "Silent Alarm," on its back.

In their enhancement of the songs, the remixers haven't dismissed what made the original 13 compositions solid ones. But they have tinkered with the music enough to move beyond simply placing a drum beat under a track. The remix album places particular emphasis on opening the windows and allowing the atmosphere of the songs to fill the room.

The backing vocals are brought forward in some tunes ("Helicopter") while the fuzzy bass lines are front and center in other songs ("Luno," for instance). The group's post-punk meets Blur single, "Banquet," is served in a psychedelic swirl while "Plans" (replanted by Mogwai) and "Compliments" (recasted by Shibuyaka) sounds like a call-and-response to Radiohead's Kid A.

With a new album due in 2006, Bloc Party should be applauded for seeking new alternatives to the basic four-member rock band lineup and the constrictions it ultimately brings. And at a time when its contemporaries and rivals are drunk with nostalgia and past successes, (when will Oasis ever stop rewriting "What's the Story Morning Glory?") Bloc Party is looking beyond the hangover for progress and "Silent Alarm Remixed" is a good sign of what is to come.

But take a breath here. The remix album is ultimately a money snatcher.

The Greenhornes, Sewed Soles

The Greenhornes
Sewed Soles
V2 Records

The Cincinnati garage-rock band the Greenhornes certainly keep good musical company. They've finished a world tour with label mates the White Stripes, and Jack White commissioned the rhythm section to play on Loretta Lynn's Grammy-winning comeback album, "Van Lear Rose."

Just rewards for a band that has harnessed the energy of the Kinks and the exuberance of the Animals into nearly a decade-long recording career.

What makes listening to the trio so much fun isn't just their overt homage to the 1960s acts that inspire them, but their immersion in the era of free love. The songs lyrically return to a more innocent view of romance. And with the wonderful primer for the uninitiated, "Sewed Soles," the band captures the highlights from their first three albums.

On a slow-dance number fit for "The Wonder Years," singer/guitarist Craig Fox asks his date on "Shadow of Grief," to "squeeze me now baby/a little tighter/don't you say maybe now/put your arms around me now." The alternate version of "Lovin' in the Sun" shows Fox as someone "who can spend hours grooving on the flowers" behind a backdrop of bouncy acoustic guitars and a rising chorus.

But what would rock be without a little heartache? "I've Been Down" offers Roger Daltrey-vocal soul, and fuzzy guitars power the fierce rhythmic stomp of "Lies" and "No More." A shifty bass line leads guest vocalist Holly Golightly through the winter of her romantic discontent on "There Is an End," as "spring brings the rain/with winter comes pain/every season has an end."

Surely old-school music snobs will gripe about the familiar sounds from listening to the collection. But unlike the Strokes or the Hives, the Greenhornes continue to succeed where their garage-rock contemporaries often fail in articulating their influences into meaningful tunes.