Artist: O.S.I.
Album: RE: FREE (MCD)

Release date: 2006
Media type: CD

While OSI’s debut album ‘Office of Strategic Influence’ (2003) was still full of metal guitar riffs, its successor ‘Free’ (2006) revealed obvious tendencies into the direction of Electronica, reminding of band member Kevin Moore’s solo project Chroma Key. This remix EP inevitably continues this process.

With the EP ‘re:free’, Kevin Moore (ex-Dream Theater, Chroma Key) and Jim Matheos (Fates Warning) more than ever step into the realm of experimental and electronic music. It features three remixes of tracks from the album ‘Free’, which altogether clock in at about half an hour. Such as ‘Go’ that has been remixed by sound enthusiast Martin Gretschman, who is famous for being keyboarder with experimental German band ‘The Notwist’ and for releasing his solo work under the pseudonym ‘Console’. Bands such as A-Ha and Depeche Mode count among his former clients. Kevin Moore: ‘Jim and I are fans of his keyboard and programming work with The Notwist. We had him chose which song he wanted to do, and sent him the individual tracks. The only thing we specified was that it should be relatively long. He ended up using some elements from the song and adding a lot of his own programming and even new chord progressions.’
Kevin Moore himself provided the other two remixes, ‘Kicking’ and ‘Home Was Good’. While he added a danceable ‘four on the floor’ midtempo beat to the first, the latter shines with an elaborate breakbeat. ‘I chose Kicking and Home Was Good because I thought they had the sort of moods that would work well drawn out and varied’, explains Moore. ‘I tried to work with only a couple elements of the original track and add new arrangements, sounds, textures and rhythms. Home Was Good is originally in an odd time signature, and for the remix I changed it to 6/4, which meant rephrasing the vocals and changing the entire feel so that it flowed more easily.’

A 12“ vinyl version if ‘re:free’ is only available via online order (www.burningshed.com). As a bonus, the CD version includes the video for the song ‘Free’, directed by Andreas Nilsson who is well-known for his videos and projections for the Swedish electronic band ‘The Knife’.

TRACKLIST:

01. Go (Console remix) (MP3)
02. Kicking (Kevin Moore remix) (MP3)
03. Home Was Good (Kevin Moore remix) (MP3)
04. Free (video)