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The Free Design: The Now Sound Redesigned
Light In The Attic LITA 016 (60:53)
* * * * 4 STARS!
From the radical to the sublime
The Free Design were a jazz-influenced family vocal group usually associated with the US Sunshine Pop era of the late 60s, and they have long been cult favourite with harmony vocal fans for their inventive work. Following a fine re-issue series of their original albums, Seattle's Light In The Attic label have collected material from three remix EPs and added unreleased mixes and effective interludes to make a fascinating CD project. To subject light and airy vocal records to modern mixers will be sacrilege to some, but the election and ordering is handled sensitively and always with great respect to the group's original music. Having said that, Madlib's take on Where Do I Go is a debatable opener, with its aggressive upfront drums, but we settle to a series of interpretations that keep the feel of music of the group's work. Sean O'Hagan and Stereolab take a 'Mixed Hors d'oeuvres' approach, drawing on several tracks, Styrofoam and Sarah Shannon keep the original structure of I Found Love, Super Furry Animals tackle The Proper Ornaments, and Mellow turn Kites Are Fun into a blissful summer vibe. A series of related interludes from Nobody help build a cohesive whole and link the varied influences.
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