Product Description

The king of eclectic pop weirdness follows up 2005's 'Guero' with this remix disc, seemingly a logical step seeing as his music has always appropriated from hip-hop and dance culture. 'Guerolito' ("little Guero") sees the original album's big beat sounds mutated into ever more fanciful shapes by the likes of Air, backpack hip-hop guru El-P, Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys and Scots elec-psych wizards Boards Of Canada.

Track Listing

1. E-Pro
2. Que' Onda Guero
3. Girl
4. Missing
5. Black Tambourine
6. Earthquake Weather
7. Hell Yes
8. Broken Drum
9. Scarecrow
10. Go It Alone
11. Farewell Ride
12. Rental Car
13. Emergency Exit
14. Clap Hands
15. Hell Yes
16. Que' Onda Guero

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56821 in Music
• Released on: 2006-01-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 62 minutes

Customer Reviews

afterthought....
...the lovechild of last years underwhelming "Guero", is like those cheap second-CD-of-remixes record companies bolt thoughtlessly onto albums as the sales start to slip. New! Tour Edition! Bonus CD!...

... and Guerolito is exactly that. But released in its own so called right. Thankfully, it's a relatively cheap thrill, and with sixteen songs, it's hardly shortchanging anyone. But it's utterly superfluous. Presenting remixes of every track from the "Guero" album in order, it ditches the received knowledge (and potential) of the remix work, presenting instead, just a set of slightly different versions.

The malady of modern remixing is presented clearly here : the tendancy to shoehorn every song, every quirk and style into a generic box of noises, beats, and BPM's, "Guerolito" slaughters the reputation of Beck as being in any way eclectic : they all sound the same. Unless, like The Shamen's longforgotten "Progeny" remix, it's an exercise in postmodern boredom and repetition, "Guerolito" is a bit of a bore.

The potential of the remix is to change the song from a caterpillar to a butterfly. Too often, it goes the other way. Whereas it could've been a wonderful experiement, an attempt to extract every idea and nugget of information, extrapolate it, and make the song everythinhg it could've been, most of the songs stay at the same rhythm, the same style, roughly the same length.

Think of the power of the remix : Butch Vig making "Never Gonna Get It" into some kind of rampaging, sleazy rock sex monster instead of a fairly bland R'n'B lustfest. Of EBTG's "Missing" moving from a morose ballad into a celebration of the power of music to set you free.

Nope. None of that. Here you get a bunch of songs that seem almost the same as the originals. Only Air's remix of "Heaven Hammer" (sounding like Gary Numan), and Boards of Canada's take on "Broken Drum", makes any stylistic change to the original beyond providing a cheap lick of new paint, same colour as the old.

Guerolito neither liberates the old stuff, or offers anything new to it. The old cliches is that you can't polish a turd - and if anything, the more examination of the original there is, it exposes "Guero" for the work of a great artist who appears to have stumbled into offering a generic product of indistinct melody and nonsensical lyrics. Some could say that that's always been Beck's Unique Selling Point, but with words that arrive like psuedo-gibberish and music that could sedate, "Guerolito" is a largely pointless exercise without much charm and offers even less artistically. Still, good thing it's cheap. You get what you pay for.

Have you already got this?
Mostly quality remixes, as long as your open to re-interpretation. However, I'm pretty sure I've got every last track on CD Singles/bonus tracks etc.

Hell Yes
I must admit I love remix projects - especially if they're done by my favourite producers - or even fans of a specific group or genre. So when I heard Beck's Geurolito - I was quite impressed.

Beck's Geurolito is based on Beck's 2005 smash Guero - but he asked a group of remixers to do some work for this project; and in my opinion works well. Amongst the two Beastie Boys, Mario C and Ad-Rock, Air, John King and Boards Of Canada submitted remixes.

This album starts off nicely with a bossa-driven remix of E-Pro, nicely remixed with a country feel to it. I love the breakdown, really Lennon-esque!

I really feel I have to comment on Island's remix of "Qué Onda Guero" as it's really interesting. You can tell it's very influenced by Bjork, but yet it's got the cheekiness of The Herbaliser, again just shows you dance isn't dead.

Other gems include Air's 80s look at "Heaven Hammer", Numan-esque feel with touches of The Human League; breathtaking.

Ad Rock takes a more breakbeat attitude to the remix he submitted - his Beastie Boy feel is definitely omnipresent here, this wouldn't look out of place on "To The 5 Boroughs". I like the way they played with the dubby echoes.... funky!

Mario C's on the other hand is more trip hop - he's gone for laid back beats funky breaks and excellent use of Beck's vocals. Fresh.

My favourite remix for quite a while (thanks to a 12" he released not so long ago) has to be 8Bit's reconstruction of "Hell Yes" - I like the way they've made retro computer music actually sound good. It's a really addictive remix, so do expect to play it a few times.

Other remixes I liked are Board Of Canada’s trip hop view on "Broken Drum", with its atmospheric feel and yet isn't a million miles from indie. I also enjoyed Diplo's ragga feel to "Wish Coin"; Subtle's disorientating prospective on "Farewell Ride"; and the bonus track "Fax Machine Anthems"; with its menacing electronic attitude and dark rhythms.

Altogether I would say this is an excellent remix album, and is a welcomed addition to his back catalogue. It's been a long time since I've listened to an album from start to end without skipping, so that’s something that a lot of artists can't always hope for. Beck definitely has picked some fine remixers, and the remixers have done a sterling job!

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