Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics

Radio Fried

www.mikerelm.com

San Francisco DJ Mike ReIm is best known for his captivating audio/visual mash-ups. He flips the script with Spectacle, his first foray into composing original music. Spectacle is clearly a dance record, touching all bases from synth-heavy electro pop jams like "Tron" and "Quickie" to 80s-inspired tracks such as "Without Her" and "Body Rock" (featuring Morningwood and Gift of Gab), along with a little hip-hop experimentation gone wrong. "Everytime" (featuring Del the Funky Homosapien), "You Break" (featuring Mr. Lif) and "My Heart" (featuring ADeeM) share the same rap/rockish production, full of loping organs, heavy guitar riffs and vocalist Adrian Hartley crooning the chorus - and it doesn't sit well next to the up-tempo, futuristic club tracks that surround it. Add to that a litter of channel-surfing skits and the listening experience becomes jarring. It's clear that ReIm is heading in a new direction and, by the sounds of Spectacle, it isn't a bad move, he just needs to jettison the filler before he has something truly worth deeming a "spectacle." - Zoneil Maharaj