The first in a series of remix discs from Don and Roel Funcken's Funckarma project. Features rare and previously un-released re-interpretations and remixes of Plaid, Funkstorung, Speedy J, Ra-X, Mr. Projectile, + many more.

sutemos

I really doubt that anybody of you needs to be presented to duo of Don & Roel Funcken (aka Funckarma). Under four monikers (Quench, Cane, shadow Huntaz and Funckarma) they have released lots of influent electronic music albums.

Until now they have release two albums as Funckarma - Parts (2000) and Solid State (2001). Recently they got into producing stuff for their own hip hop project called Shadow Huntaz. Last year they have released debut album of Shadow Huntaz – Corrupt Data and at the end of this summer second one - Valley Of The Shadow - showed up. So I am really delighted to hold the newest records of Funckarma in my hands - remix compilation called Refurbished One. It was released by on of the most beloved labels of mine - n5MD. For all skeptics who don't think that remix compilation is an album I must say that most of the remade tracks - 14 - are unreleased and the rest ones are changed so this disc can hardily be taken as an exclusive.

I must say in no uncertain terms that Refurbished One is stunning. Plaid, Funkstorung, Blaimstrain, Speedy J, Mr. Projectile, plus several pretty unknown/debut artists such as Ra-X, Shingetsu Ensemble, Xeno Xeno, Duuster, Slemper, Plat, Jaap Boots, Koolfonk, Heavenly Social - all these remixes are awsome. From the very first to the very last. I guess we start to seem boring but I shall repeat for yet one more time - pure IDM albums are so rare recently that every one of them becomes platinum in my heart. They stay in my memory for a long time, the are sounding in my monologues forever.

Don & Roel Funcken did a great job on this album - this compilation of remixes is really sounding great, not like the other who tend to be sentimental and historic. It is not a typical collection which I must fill some period of Funckarma's creativity. Refurbished One is very solid and traditional work of these two professional brothers but it is also very sharp and angry. This album is not meant for those who enjoy sentimental music of dreams and sweet IDM. Funckarma has always liked rough synthetics and rhythms that remind me of new albums of Autechre. So don't get fooled.

Best of the best: Speedy J – Hayfever, Koolfonk – Lisa, Funkstörung - Fat Camp Feva, Plaid - Cold, Ra-X - Korrupted By Power, Xenoxeno - Nore.

By the way I have good news for those who loved this album - in 2006 n5MD is going to release second part of Funckarma's remixes - Refurbished Two.

Rating: 10 gridface

While I’m a big fan of the Funcken brothers and their many projects, I never knew they were such prolific remixers. In fact, many of the mixes on this compilation (the first of at least two volumes) were previously unreleased or rare. Thank goodness they’ve finally seen the light of day. These are beautiful interpretations of pieces by a variety of well-known artists.

First up is an atmospheric, multi-layered version of "Hayfever" by Speedy J. (The original version is on one of my favorite albums.) Funckarma add bass and distort the original industrial sounds while retaining their rhythm. The result is a dramatic mix that has me envisioning a spaceship sweeping through the cosmos. "Nipponnized" uses the sounds of traditional Japanese instruments via the Shingetsu Ensemble. Funckarma adds beats and subtle computer manipulation for an intoxicating experience.

Another stand-out mix is "Fat Camp Feva" by Funkstörung featuring Test and Non Genetic. Scratches and horns claw thick upright bass while the MCs rhyme. The Funckarma version of "Duuster & Donker" by Duuster hides squelchy 303 acid behind synth sweeps and flute stabs. It’s as funky as it is beautiful. On the remix of "Love Here" by Mr. Projectile, vocals are stuttered, beats become increasingly complex, and a deep bassline ties everything together. Finally, the mix of Plaid’s "Cold" is positively frigid. Disjointed parts start to coalesce just as the track fades out.

I’ve just skimmed the surface of the fourteen mixes in this collection. The Funcken brothers are superb collaborators, so I hope this new channel for releasing remixes inspires them to create even more. igloomag

A remix record, Funckarma's Refurbished One collects the scattered work that Funckarma have done over the last few years. Remix collections are sometimes hit-or-miss affairs, more a cross-sampling of recent musical trends than a cohesive summation of an artist's worldview. Funckarma, however, are one of those remixers who are brought in to re-image a track into the Funckarma mold, giving it the spin and toss that says: "Simply minimal and effervesecent."

Don & Roel Funcken have a number of pseudonyms, aliases for varying styles of electronic music, and it is a testament to the variety of their efforts that I can say that while the Funckarma material leaves me somewhat cold, their work as Quench delights me continuously (Shadow Huntaz and Cane being the other two names under which they record and, frankly, I'll be talking out my ass if I try to pretend familiarity with that work). So, naturally, I put in Refurbished One with a bit of trepidation. Surprisingly, the Funckarma influence is there (oh, yes), but only as a means of creating space within the existing music.

Funkstorung's "Fat Camp Feva" is brought down to quarter speed, Tes' fly-boy rap is made so lazy that it becomes a lugubrious rap, caught in the molasses of slumbering bass line, the gasping sound of a weak trumpet and the somewhat indolent scratch of an old record. If the original was filled with whipcrack of crystal meth, Funckarma's version has OD'ed on dope smoke. Their remix of Duuster's "Duuster & Donker" retains Duuster's crackling beats but adds a layer of wandering tones and a choking, burping echo of sound as if keyboard samples were pretending to be tropical birds outside the studio glass. Speedy J's "Hayfever" is remixed into a gamboling whirlwind of electronic melodies rushing and tumbling over one another, while Ra-x's "Korrupted by Power" is filled with gurgling rhythms and sumptuous aquatic notes. Mr. Projectile's "Love Here" becomes an exercise in echoes and rainfall, as melodies and skittering electronics create an atmosphere of glittering static and low-flying mists of water vapor.

There are a number of artists whom I have no familiarity with but that doesn't detract from my enjoyment of what the Funcken brothers have done here. The tracks of Refurbished One are unified by their efforts to dig beneath the programming and the textured nuances of the originals to find the warm echoes and the glittering facets of the work which have heretofore been unrecognized. Naturally, a release entitled "One" implies a "Two" or more and, delighted by what I've heard, I'm looking forward to more of their remix work. Excellent stuff. de:bug

Funckarma waren immer das kontinentaleuropäische Gegenstück zu, na, ihr wisst schon, haben aber schon viel früher die Kurve gekriegt. Alles was sie anfassen, wird zu Gold, seien es die Raps der Shadow Huntaz oder aber, wie hier auf dieser Compilation, die Einzelspuren anderer Musiker. "Refurbished One" kompiliert längst vergriffene oder nie erschienene Remixe von Funckarma für Menschen wie Speedy J, Funkstörung, Plaid, Mr. Projectile, Blamstrain oder Duuster. Technisch bis ins letzte Detail schwapt einem dennoch immer eine große Welle Soul und Deepness entgegen; bei Funckarma geht es nie um die Technik an sich. Große Mixe, die nicht nur beweisen, das IDM volle Kanne überlebt, wenn man nur die Richtigen ans Ruder lässt. sideline

Prolific brothers Don and Roel Funcken record under several monikers including Shadow Huntaz, Cane, Quench and probably their best known, Funckarma. "Refurbished One" is a collection of mostly rare and unreleased remixes the Funcken brothers have been commissioned to do for other artists. Amongst the list are Speedy J, Plaid, Funkstorung, Mr Projectile, Duuster, Blamstrain and a series of other more obscure artists. Although each remix is for very different artists they all bear the undeniable hallmarks of the Funckarma sound; a spacious dub infected digital sound that is experimental yet precise and accomplished. From the abstract horns and upright bass of hip-hop tune "Fat Camp Feva" by Funkstorung to the bubbling digital chatter and soaring swathes of aural texture of "Duuster & Donker" by Duuster, the Funcken brothers' consistency is present throughout. Elsewhere amongst the 14 remixes on the album are a swirling atmospheric rework of Speedy J's "Hayfever", a jittery abstract reinterpretation of "Alive In Arms" by Blamstrain and strange yet serene glitchy take on Mr Projectile's "Love Here". Rounding things off is a wonderfully chilled out melodic remix of Plaid's "Cold". N5MD are planning further volumes in this series for the future. exclaim!

Funckarma, the glitch-tech IDM project of Dutch brothers Don and Roel Funcken, claim their work is influence by hip-hop, dub, reggae and soul, with these inspirations occasionally materialising in their select “refurbishments” — a compilation of remixes of artists such as Speedy J, Blamstrain, Funkstörung, among others. Most of the tracks are rhythmically busy in the break beat vein, using digital high hats, slamming pistons, crunchy claps, and distorted acid squelches. Yet, often times the edginess is gradually subdued with an AFX-like ambient melody reminiscent of Phonem and Arovane, or in the Shingetsu Ensemble song softened with the wandering wind of an Asian flute. One of the highlights of this remix album is Mr. Projectile’s “Love Here,” with faint vocals injecting a warm breeze into the cold linearity of the album. Refurbished One is a wistfully contemplative selection for dark and melancholic winter months. grooves

Funckarma is the Dutch brother team of Don and Roel Funcken. The broeder Funcken use varying aliases for their various forays into different genres: Cenik and Eaven, Cane, Quench, and the hip-hop project Shadowhuntaz. Refurbished One, the first in a planned series of Funckarma remix albums, is a collection of previously unreleased interpretations Funckarma created over the past few years. It contains 14 remixes of original tracks from electronistes including Funkstorung, Plaid, and Speedy J. The remixes clearly draw on the originals for mood, inspiration, and sound, but they are just as clearly products of Funckarma’s unique brand of electro-minimalism: sparse, slow, mysterious, and dark, like the 17th-century landscape paintings of their Dutch ancestors.

“Fat Camp Feva” takes the original Funkstorung track, a deliciously glitchy hip-hop automotive love song to the Ferrari Testerossa, and transforms it into a slow-motion grotesque approximation. “Love Here” takes Mr. Projectile’s obsessive 8-minute track and works it into a skittering, stunningly virtuosic rhythmic study, with sampled fragments from the original modulated, glitched, and stuttered into a luscious brew. Plat’s original “Hverfandi” is a rich and evocative track that features a hauntingly beautiful synth hook and bit-reduced beat. Funckarma’s version is strikingly different, yet no less mysterious and gorgeous: The brothers keep the synth hook, but transform it into a dreamlike echo of the original.

As with any remix album, if you don’t have the sound of the original tracks in your head, your experience of Refurbished One will be at least somewhat diminished. But strong remixes should also stand on their own musically, and the Funcken brothers have done a good job straddling this fence. If you’re a fan of the duo’s darkly glitched-out minimalist sound, you will find lots to like here.

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