BLACK FACTION - REWORKED

Reworked, released on Polish label Vivo, is a re-examination of an earlier work, Internal Dissident Part I, a themed exploration of Dante's journey into Hell done through music. Reworked is a continuation of the exploration of Dante's Divine Comedy throug the filter of a number of luminaries of the experimental, electro-acoustic, and electronic genres. Originally intended as a smaller project -- a few remixes here and there -- exploded as email discussions about the work grew, and Diey stepped in at the end to add some additional sound design to a few of the track as well as synthesis the collection into a more organic construct. In essense, the "remix" has become "reworked," as the additional artists have pulled Diey's work in unusual directions while still working under the broader umbrella of his vision.

The combinations add to Diey's ghostly and Middle-Eastern influenced designs, fabricating spaces which are like the dark places in a foreign bazaar. You take a wrong turn and everything -- which is already strange and exotic -- becomes even more strange and alien. John Hudak, who focuses on the nearly imperceptable edge of natural sound, offers two brief tracks, "Grains" and "Älska Dig Min Kärlek," and each strips away so much of the sound that you become completely mesmerized by the slight whisper of sound which sneaks past you. Black Moses slides "Anti-Freeze" into the mix, a hip-hop cut-up track which would cause Timbaland to crank up his sampler. "Dissidents in Exile," a Foreign Terrain (Diey's other moniker) and Cclay collaboration, has a strong Muslimgauze flavor, a combination of Azzazzin era minimalism with Gun Aramaic-style loops and distant vocal lines.

Halfway through there is an interlude called "Dante is Afraid of Virgil's Vision" done by Diey himself under the Black Faction name. It falls between Valea Djinn's "Arlesian Girl Remix" of "Modanesa" and Nemezis' "Window Maker." Both of the enclosing tracks are beat-clipped constructions, supple movements of sound and structure. Black Faction's interlude, on the other hand, is a crackling moment of indecision, a shard filled hiss of caustic static like the magnified buzz of a thousand cicadas. Vanishing behind this cloud of sound is a man's voice, drifting aimlessly in the periphery of a series of location recordings. You feel caught on the cusp of something, the edge of change, and, as Nemezis' "Window Maker" bleeds through the mix, you realize how marvelous Diey's ability is. He can make you understand what Dante has written through his aural mixes and sound design. Excellent.
Mark Teppo / Earpollution

To the present reviewer, the name Andy Diey was entirely new when his 'Tales of the Black Magheddo' CD arrived as the first solo artist release on the French label HTZ a couple of years back. Performing under the monicker of The Seven Sages of Mesopotamia, Diey beguiled with an accomplished work of Mideastern inflected ambient dub soundscaping.

Since then, Andy Diey is becoming a household name around here, albeit always under different noms-de-musique. A recent double CD collaboration with his more well-known fellow traveller Rapoon under the name New Cult of the Sun Moon has been receiving regular rotation, as has an album of nominal remixes of music Diey has created as Black Faction.

I use the term "nominal" because although the original intent was to allow a handful of musicians to remix work from Black Faction's previous CD, 'Internal Dissent Part I', it seems that he could not resist the impulse to get very hands-on himself, and quite a lot of the music features new touches by Diey, even going so far as to add sounds or remix the remixes of the remixers.

Joining Diey (masquerading as Black Faction, Foreign Terrain, Seven Sages and maybe even "Unknown") is an all-star cast of outsider electronicians, including John Hudak, Rapoon, Keith Fullerton Whitman (aka Hrvatski), and Sutekh, plus a handful of exciting newcomers, including Nemezis from the label's home country. A purloined Muslimgauze beat also makes another guest appearnce, having already been used to fine effect by Diey on 'Tales...'. (It is said that Diey and Rapoon are at work on a tribute album to their late friend.) Dirty groove and dubby groove and ethereal drift complement one another throughout as one track blends seamlessly into the next.

'Reworked' is a multicoloured, multifaceted soundscape which nonetheless succeeds as a coherent narrative. Here we visit a darker world than on 'Tales...', but this is not typical English Industrial or dark ambient. It is almost sui generis, an uncategorizable collection of well-integrated but very different sounds and moods spread across a generous seventy-two minutes. Props to the Polish label Vivo for releasing this essential work for partisans of ambitious electronica.
Stephen Fruitman
SONOMU

Despite the music's digital origins, Black Faction's Andrew Diey infuses his material with the organic qualities of tape composition (he studied musique concrete technique) and approaches his material with a surgeon's deliberation.

Last years Internal Dissident (released on the highly individual Soleilmoon imprint) showcased Diey's skill as an engineer of atmospheres. Based loosely on Dante's Divine Comedy, much of the album's hallucinatory power derived from Diey's use of speech and 'natural' ambience (his day job is as a sound designer for radio and TV); the phrase 'invisible soundtrack' has become a bit of a cliche these days, but at its best and most abstract, Dissident was a strikingly visual, stygian work, best listened to with lights off.

Remix projects are two a penny these days. Often the remix bears little or no relationship to the original (Richard D James is rumoured to have duped curators of such projects by simply giving them some of his unused material and passing it off as a remix) and the results are patchy and incoherent. Diey has chosen his remixers for Reworked with care, adding sound design touches to many of the mixes, and has sequenced the results with his trademark narrative approach.

The outcome is an album that feels like an album rather than a compilation. The remixes (including Diey's own) reign in the occasional excesses of the originals. Universal Delux offers superbly beefy Laswellian dubhop without the flab; Rapoon (Zoviet France's Robin Storey) and Keith Fullerton Whitman (aka Hrvatski) slowburn their raw material into threatening sulphurous heat haze; Sutekh's "Oakland Concrete" is scratchy basstronics, full of earcatching abstractions. John Hudek's short granular reworks eddy the originals into beautiful powdery swirls; throughout Diey's atmospherics add rich, deep space backgrounds.

Polish duo Nemezis warp "Window Maker" into deeply opiate ambient dub, with halfspeed drums chugging under distant strings, hovering chords and keening voice samples. The Black Faction remixes add more grit and texture, with "Cartesian" particularly effective in its combination of portentous atmospherics and minimal techno matrix (imagine if Dead can Dance signed to Mille Plateaux).

If shivers down your spine are what you're after, this is prog gothic ethnoforgery electronica at its finest. Recommended.
Peter Marsh / BBC

his fusion of found eastern sounds; field recordings of his travels to middle eastern countries programmed with dense complex beat-driven pieces, occupies the same sonic spaces as artists like muslimgauze and the black dog. where the influence of melody and time signatures that come from traditional eastern musics are applied with modern technology. the process in itself is fascinating, the results are startling.

black faction's own take on 'cartesian' illustrates this process perfectly, beautifully echoed melodies are lost in a sea of clipped percussion. a brief snatch of hip-hop appears during 'afghan front mix 3' before the superb downtempo jam of 'kaftanistanabul 1' by universal delux makes its mark. we look forward to hearing to some original material from this artist. the "star" remixers; hrvatski and sutekh, both turn in impressive workouts. the former erring towards the more electro-accoustic end of the scale with an epic take. sutekh preferring to explore the micro-spaces in between the beats.

of the two rapoon pieces on offer, it's the 'caligulan' offering that stands out. a thick stew of ambience and filmic motifs smothers sub-bass tomfoolery. another effortlessly brilliant release, we await the next chapter in the black faction story with keen interest.
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