Chicks On Speed/Kreidler
The Chicks on Speed/Kreidler Session
Chicks On Speed COSRECS04 CD/12"

This excellent 12" and CD EP sees Chicks On Speed continue their series of collaborations with some of electronica's finest. Together, Kreidler's orchestration and the Chicks' delivery have strong overtones of The B-52's, and the first three tracks are original vocal and instrumental non-sequitur collages done in a faintly similar style. In "Frequent Flyer Lounge Song", the syncopation and vocals are dancefloor friendly, using a stripped down palette of spartan percussion and arrangement that demand a Thomas Brinkmann House mix.

However, the EP's jewel is "Where The Wild Roses Grow", a cover of Nick Cave's duet with Kylie Minogue. The original's deeply romantic narrative has it that lasting beauty exists only in the truth of death. It required the complicity of both parties to find redemption and transcendence in the narrative's brutal ending. Tackling it from a different angle, the Kreidler Chicks replace luscious instrumentation with the muted irregularity of a kickdrum, atonal strings and the pitter-patter of static that soaks it in alienation. And they not only reverse the singing roles (though without altering the pronouns), they also process the voices to sound like speech patterns decoded from radio frequencies. Romance is replaced by tragedy and pain, as glitches break up the poem's lyricism and spectral voices try to hide in the far corners of the stereo spectrum. In the process they have found a new level of pathos in a Nick Cave song. A rare and exquisite accomplishment.

- Ben Borthwick, The Wire, Issue 216, February 2002


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