Forget the fact The Vandals have been absolutely crap over the last few years. Forget they’re a shadow of their former selves. Forget the fact this is just plain odd. What on Earth possessed the band to get someone to completely deconstruct a bunch of really, really bad Vandals songs and, well, actually make some of them a bit better. The problem with these remix record is that Shingo actually remixes some of the worst Vandals songs known to man, so in that sense it’s impossible to make them worse – but at the same time he has a really rough job trying to make them sound half-decent.
Shingo Asari, Japanese dance-punk mix master and half of the Japanese pop-culture duo PANDA, NO PANDA, was apparently asked to do this after re-mixing some other Vandals material and the band liked what he came back with. At times he does a fantastic job. There’s a real ‘Hello Nasty’-era Beastie Boys feel to Shingo’s style and so tracks like ‘4,3,2,1,0,-1’ and ‘Little Weirdo’ are quite fun. Pointless mind, and very odd, but fun for a few listens. But then there are plenty of other tracks which just sound crap – ‘Disproportioned Head’ is an awful song no matter how many beats and samples you throw over it, while I’m struggling to convey my thoughts on ‘Appreciate My Honesty’ with its lounge feel. The remix sounds fun actually, it’s just the song itself doesn’t fit.
Shingo mashes up all kinds of genres and samples, so at least it’s interesting. But the fact this is rubbish isn’t really his fault – you can’t polish a turd after all…
www.vandals.com
Kung Fu Records
Paul