Bloc Party - Silent Alarm Remixed

The boys of Bloc Party busted out of the indie scene and into the mainstream this past March when they released their much ballyhooed Silent Alarm album. It was a delightfully rebellious collection of polished songs that catapulted the band from its UK niche onto the soundtrack of The O.C. After an aggressive U.S. tour, Bloc Party has teamed up with an all-star cast – Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, M83, Four Tet, Mogwai, Death From Above 1979 and Automato, to name a few – to issue a track-by-track remix of its breakout smash.

Infectious beats and ice cold dance grooves transform the album into a completely different animal that stands just fine on its own. “Helicopter” and “Positive Tension” are reborn as thumping discotheque anthems. “The Price of Gasoline,” as remixed by Automato, sprinkles a bit of electronica onto an already militant dance beat – a near perfect marriage of fat bass and heavy machinery. The super-synthesized second take of “Luno” by Death From Above 1979 is also destined for dance floor greatness.

Some of the remixes take more creative liberty than others – M83 replaces the percussion section in “The Pioneers” with strings and layers a thick sheet of echoing vocals over the entire track. Erol Alkan tears “She’s Hearing Voices” to shreds and rebuilds it from the bottom up, often stretching tiny clips of the original song like silly putty. But even the most deconstructed tracks still succeed in capturing the energy of the original recordings.

It’s a tall order to re-invent an album as sonically sophisticated as Silent Alarm, but this record gets it right. Purists will prefer the original, but they’ll find an excellent companion in the new one. [www.blocparty.com]