05/14/08
Text: Nik Mercer
As Anthem's HQ'd in Los Angeles, it's only appropriate that we support local acts and HEALTH is no exception. The experimental/noise/dance act is tightly connected to the Smell (the same all ages club that spawned No Age), but has exploded and pummeled its way into practically every musical community and scene on the globe over the past two years or so. They might be getting too big for L.A. (look at their tour schedule!), but we still love 'em and fondly remember the days when John still was working an investment banking gig, playing weekend shows only when the four had the time. (Anthem documented one such show... check it out here.)
While HEALTH has consistently been a "noise" group, edging towards the stoically industrial (and strangely poppy) side of the spectrum, they've always had a penchant for making tunes to dance to. Granted, "dancing" to a HEALTH song generally means spontaneously spasming on a scummy chewing-gum-plastered concrete floor. To bridge the gap between DJ club night and teeny hole-in-the-wall noise concert, HEALTH started asking a plethora of electronic artists from Acid Girls to Pink Skull to Curses! for remixes of their work. This writer is proud to say that he recommended a few of the folks who eventually edited the tracks.
While none of the band members (or their record label, Lovepump United) really knew what to actually do with the jams, they were definitely enjoyable and trickled into the blogging community like a plague. We were all swept away by the stunning danceability of the reinterpreted songs and loved HEALTH all the more for providing us with music that we could not only bash our heads to but also get funky with.
With their popularity soaring and no concrete promise of a follow-up LP in the immediate future, the dudes decided to relase HEALTH//DISCO, a compilation of all the remixes they commissioned. The thing's out on May 27 and can be pre-ordered at Lovepump United's store or Insound. Be sure to grab the thing... it'll compliment your HEALTH stash nicely. Check out the CFCF remix of "Triceratops" in the media player to the right (or download it below) and stream a few more remixes over at the HEALTH//DISCO MySpace page.
HEALTH - Triceratops (CFCF Remix)
