Customer Reviews

Never Mind the Distortion

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In somewhat of a surprising move, Nav Katze followed up their 1994 album Uwanosora with a remix album, Never Mind The Distortion.

At the time of its release, the ambient scene was becoming more prominent, with The Orb on their third or fourth album, and artists like Aphex Twin, Black Dog Productions, and Global Communication making names for themselves. It was this approach Nav Katze decided to adopt, inviting a handful of artists to remix material from Out and Uwanosora.

Predictably, the resulting tracks, with one exception, bear no resemblance to the originals. Only Ultramarine's remix of "Nobody home" keeps the vocal track and song structure relatively intact; the rest either take some small element of the original mix and build on that, or go somewhere completely different.

The Aphex Twin mixes are distorted, pingy, and noisy - pretty much what he was doing at the time. The Black Dog mixes are more interesting - if Nav Katze's cover of "More than a feeling" was unrecognizable in its original form, the Black Dog remix makes it even more so. You won't recognize it as having anything to do with the cover, except in name.

The Global Communication mix of "Wild horse" is probably the best track here. It starts off sounding something like a field recording (albeit a polished one) of some verdant paradise; about halfway through, hints of a rhythm track start to fade in, and reach full volume by the end of the track. Difficult to describe, but very effective.

Never Mind The Distortion was the first Nav Katze album to be released outside of Japan. For this reason, it is probably the best known. However, it is not a particularly good representation of the group's work. If you like the artists who did the remixes, you'll like this.

In somewhat of a surprising move, Nav Katze followed up their 1994 album Uwanosora with a remix album, Never Mind The Distortion.

At the time of its release, the ambient scene was becoming more prominent, with The Orb on their third or fourth album, and artists like Aphex Twin, Black Dog Productions, and Global Communication making names for themselves. It was this approach Nav Katze decided to adopt, inviting a handful of artists to remix material from Out and Uwanosora.

Predictably, the resulting tracks, with one exception, bear no resemblance to the originals. Only Ultramarine's remix of "Nobody home" keeps the vocal track and song structure relatively intact; the rest either take some small element of the original mix and build on that, or go somewhere completely different.

The Aphex Twin mixes are distorted, pingy, and noisy - pretty much what he was doing at the time. The Black Dog mixes are more interesting - if Nav Katze's cover of "More than a feeling" was unrecognizable in its original form, the Black Dog remix makes it even more so. You won't recognize it as having anything to do with the cover, except in name.

The Global Communication mix of "Wild horse" is probably the best track here. It starts off sounding something like a field recording (albeit a polished one) of some verdant paradise; about halfway through, hints of a rhythm track start to fade in, and reach full volume by the end of the track. Difficult to describe, but very effective.

Never Mind The Distortion was the first Nav Katze album to be released outside of Japan. For this reason, it is probably the best known. However, it is not a particularly good representation of the group's work. If you like the artists who did the remixes, you'll like this.

A stunning album! Oriental calmness and harmony mixed with Western optimism and mysticism...