My Beautiful Dark Twisted Basement on the Hill – Bruno S

by: Sal Christ

photo credit: stock

Imagine yourself on a road trip along the Pacific Coast Highway: the ocean on your right, the endless stretch of road in front of you, and your best mate on your left. It’s a perfect afternoon with sunshine for miles and tunes meant for driving in the console. Which tunes, you ask? Kanye West and Elliott Smith.

Now, imagine that somehow both West and Smith are passengers in the backseat of your car, and the two of them spend the entire road trip fighting over whose music is going to play—kicking, punching, hollering, and generally causing a ruckus. The sound system train wrecks between West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Smith’s From a Basement On the Hill and by the time you reach San Francisco from the north, you kick both musicians out to hitchhike.

This is the experience of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Basement on the Hill, a remix album put forth by independent Bruno S. To train wreck behind the decks during a live set is expected—every DJ has done it at least once—and not all mashups or remixes pan out in hooky, entertaining manners. However, to make a train wreck out of the act of train wrecking is a feat unto itself.

Every track on this album is rubbish. The beats don’t match up, the mixing jumps around at random, and the auditory foundations of West and Smith just aren’t meant for blending. If Smith’s sound had been more jazz-oriented or West’s anger a little less aggressive, remixing these two might have resulted in a strange little Radiohead-like flower. Unfortunately, that’s just not the case. Frankly, listening to this album is akin to listening to two of your neighbors compete in the audio pollution Olympics.

Few things are accomplished over the course of the hour-long record: Kanye West and Elliott Smith records are never meant to play together, both musicians are spectacular writers, and…well, Kanye should probably stick with rapping over singing. Long story short, this album will make your ears bleed and should do us the favor of burying itself.

Tags: radiohead, sal christ, elliott smith, pacific coast highway, kanye west, my beautiful dark twisted fantasy, from a basement on the hill, bruno s, train wreck

Category: Planet Buzz