I’ll be honest. When I first heard about Neil Cowley’s ‘Hall Of Mirrors (Reflected)’ I didn’t have high hopes. On face value it is a remix album. Historically remix albums generally don’t work on the whole. The remixer can lose what it was that made the song special. Replacing all that for a thumping 4/4 beat or sped up vocals. Luckily, however, this isn’t always the case on ‘Hall Of Mirrors (Reflected)’.
Ben Lukas Boysen’s rework of ‘Prayer)’ is tender. It takes time to re-explore what made the original such a delight. It gently meanders. Taking its time to rinse the emotion out of each note. The song actually benefits from this approach, giving it new meanings. After ‘Prayer’, however things start to go down a more formulaic route. Louf’s remix of ‘Berlin Nights’ and Kilig’s remix of ‘Circulation’ are fine, but the inclusion of electronic bleeps and blips feels disjoined at times, and took me out of the song. Which is a shame. Seb Wildblood’s remix of ‘Just Above it All’ is a prime example of this. By making the song too busy, basslines and blips, it looses pretty much all of the joy the original had. Instead, we have music I’d try and ignore in a bar while out with friends.
While ‘Hall Of Mirrors (Reflected)’ tries to reimagine the songs and give them a slightly narcotic twist, the results are mixed. At its best the album matches the power and emption of the original, but at its works it reminds me of the remixes that became the norm with singles in the 90s and 00s. The remixer did a reasonable job of transforming the song into something different, but, at times, misses the original point of the song.
Reading this back I feel I’m being harsher on the album than I mean to be. It isn’t a bad album. If I’d heard this first I would be entertained but curious to hear the original versions. However, this isn’t the case. I heard the original first. I fell for its sublime beauty. The simplicity of the chord structures and the feeling that they gave off. This release is for the realm of Cowley completists and DJs.
6/10
Words: Nick Roseblade
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