When Alex Ayuli and Rudy Tambala formed A.R. Kane nearly four decades ago they gave birth to what we call dream pop these days. Releasing material on 4AD, the group's tunes got lumped in with what we called "ethereal" back then; no one I knew who was also scouring import bins at Tower Records ever said the words "dream pop" in 1988, you know?
Following the recent substantial A.R. Kive reissue box-set on Rocket Girl records, A.R. Kane are offering up a sorta surprise remix compilation today. The digital release is up on their Bandcamp now and it's a fantastic collection. This stuff still makes my head spin, just like it did in 1988 or so, and the remixes here largely keep to the spirit of the original works, while adding new flavors to the vibe.
As Rudy Tambala explains:
The LP version of "Baby Milk Snatcher" is the 'radio-friendly' version! It is a different style and hinted maybe towards the movement away from saturated noise and towards the approach we took with the 'i' LP.
When I conceived of the ARKive I had a short list of people and approaches I'd love to have included to do versions or remixes of some songs. After baking the two-inch masters I made the stems available to a handful of interested parties and within the tight time frame I got back the three remixes featured here. The Slowdive "WOGS" remix has the early A.R Kane vibe but with current shoegaze and glitch production values. The Tambala mix is by my son Louis - he did his first production work on "Baby Milk Snatcher" back in 2015 when he performed beats for our live show - back then it wasn't broken beat it was more dub groove with Drum and Bass thrown in for the choruses, which leads neatly into the Tim Reaper remix - I was turned on the Tim by the writer Joe Muggs - the tracks he sent blew me away, as did Tim's treatment of "Baby Milk Snatcher".
The 'demo' I found back in 2012, when I had it baked and transferred, waiting for the day it could be mastered and released. We were still with 4AD when it was recorded but after the falling out with 4AD over the M|A|R|R|S record, we sent it to Geoff [Travis] at Rough Trade - he did not hesitate and we never looked back. Although it lacks the grandeur of the final EP, all the ingredients are there and there are some parts I prefer and other parts that never made it to the finished product that I was happy to hear again. I hope you find it interesting and [as] a stand-alone piece, enjoyable.
During rehearsals in 2023 we loosened up by singing "Mirror In the Bathroom" - the Beat - over the BMS groove. It worked so well that we slipped it into the live set, segueing into BMS seamlessly. When John Kennedy from Radio X asked for us to do an interview and live session I thought this would be an ideal track to perform for his show. The versions are different enough to merit taking a place in this collection.
Notes by Rudy"The making of Up Home was the final fruition of the first phase of A.R. Kane - Alex and Rudy, Russell [Smith] on bass and Maggie on backing vocal, with Ray [Shulman] producing. Our vision was clear and our ambition huge.
Of course every version of "Baby Milk Snatcher" finds a new variance of the original number's unique pleasures, so if you're a fan of this period of A.R. Kane, these are all special on their own terms, though special points do go to the Louis Tambala "broken beats" version as that one swings! Elsewhere, the Slowdive run at "WOGS" is absolutely stunning. Heavy, dense, and with an air of foreboding not ever heard on a Slowdive record, this one reimagines dream pop in dramatic fashion. Bracingly weighty, this is the highlight here for me, though the home demo of "One Way Mirror" has a directness which is refreshing. Similarly, the angular riffs of the home demo of "Up" please immensely, enough that you may end up preferring this one to the original. Hey, I said "may"!
A.R. Kane remain a band that holds a special place in my memory. I can recall how, like others back in the day, I was drawn to this group by the 4AD connection, and how the music of the band ended up expanding on my expectations. A.R. Kane created a few genres almost on their own, and in 1988 to 1990, those few of us who were hip to the pleasures of this outfit, grasped at straws to find the right adjectives to describe this stuff. No one was mixing styles the way this duo was. And, as these remixes show, the material was timeless, and resilient. Bent into new shapes, these compositions still yield pleasures, new ones too.
Up Home Collected by A.R. Kane is out today. Details below. Details on the A.R. Kane reissues are found via Rocket Girl Records.
[Photo: A.R. Kane / Rocket Girl Records]