Funckarma: Refurbished Two
n5MD

I think I've finally figured out how the Funcken brothers manage to be so prolific: they don't work side-by-side but in shifts, with one sleeping and the other working, and then switch roles at shift's end. How else to explain the never-ending stream of new and unreleased material and remixes? Anywaaay… the siblings' latest remix set won't disappoint Funckarma fans. As usual, it's a generous collection that exemplifies the brothers' distinctive signature. Don and Roel liberally cycle loops and effects like card-shufflers until a given piece appears to spin in place, albeit in relatively slow motion. Their material exudes a disorienting feel, with voices and rhythms constantly swirling as if entrapped within a druggy haze. Throughout the nearly seventy-minute disc, tracks are twisted elastically into low-riding, atmospheric dub-funk configurations.

Targeted artists are a diverse lot, with everyone from Run_Return (“Animals Are Beautiful People”), Gridlock (“Estrella V2”), and Landau (“Raued Daued”) given the Funckarma treatment. In their hands, Machinedrum's “Machinebong” becomes an exercise in churning, acidy madness, while the echolalic voices in Céline's “Here and Now” receive additional shredding in the group's digital Cuisinart. The brothers push Ontayso's “Score Of An Imaginary Iceland” into a rather more psychedelic jazz direction where a saxophone wails against a galaxial haze of synths and percussive thrums. Standouts include the squirrelly funk and hip-hop treatment of E.stonji's “Con.Trst” and the slinky, heavy-hitting hip-hop of “The Way It Was” by Strand & Tres (two equally epic instrumental mixes by Funckarma and Shadowhuntaz appear).

December 2007