Inasmuch as they bring the spirit of lighthearted enjoyment to their renderings in the avant-garde, the members of FUN are not jokers, nor are they schlemiels or shlamazels. Exhibit B in this particular case, these remixes of source material from their original My Castle of Quiet session of 15th December, 2010. I thought immediately that this was a great idea, and I wish I'd thought of it myself, but no, 'twas the FUN boys and a few of their colleagues in the noise universe that rendered these re-imaginings, which, depending on one's perspective and/or mood of the moment, can prove more entertaining even than the original sets themselves.
Think of FUN as an urban-American brothers Rupenus, where everything—especially one's own work—becomes cut-up fodder to be dealt with accordingly. And, in the spirit of the remix (as we all originally became acquainted with that term and process), several of these tracks have a beat, and goddamn if you can't dance to it.
For example, "Untitled (Unicorn Hard-on Remix)" is a glorious recall of NDW pop rhythms, while "We Gonna Fun You (Ironing remix)" is dancehall with a peg-leg. "Untitled (Tom Smith remix)," starting at about the 9-minute mark, is straight-up house music, metallurgist-style, the beat supplied by a harnessed and regimented fragment of tonal buzz. So, for those of you who "hate noise" (and are still reading this post), these FUN remixes may be just the thing to bridge your gap.
The other tracks cover perhaps more expected territory, but are no less engaging, and more than foot the bill of being revisitations of the original source session. Being able to ponder such a wealth of alternate camera angles upon one's own creations gives away that FUN are indeed having fun, but not merely fun—there's real artistry at work here.
Thanks again to Mat and Jonny, the core duo, FUN in essence, and to "sometimes FUN" Kevin, for again sharing their works with Castleheads, WFMU listeners, and BoTB and FMA readers at large. Manipulation of my FUN photo by Tracy Widdess of Brutal Knitting. Original FUN session engineered by Glenn Luttman.
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