Celldweller – The Complete Cellout Vol. 016

Celldweller
Category: Industrial / Electro
Album: The Complete Cellout Vol. 01
Stars: 4.5
Blurb: A powerful set of remixes and interpretations that presents only the merest excellent fraction of this powerful act’s creative energy.

Never content to stick to a single style, Klayton has been pushing the envelope of production with his Celldweller moniker since the beginning of the last decade. Incorporating elements of drum & bass, trance, and varying other forms of electronic music with a healthy dose of alt. rock attitude, Celldweller is a prime example of how modern technology utilized in music can still be forward thinking and adventurous in the hands of a creative mind. Hitting the road in 2011 with his musical cohort Blue Stahli, Celldweller presented a unique concert experience combining the intensity of a live rock show with the danceable abandon of a DJ set full of remixes and alternate version of the band’s best known songs, all set to frenetic video accompaniment and exhibiting a uniformly futuristic vision. With The Complete Cellout Vol. 01, listeners can now hear these versions in the comfort of their headphones and revel in the genre-defying exploration that is Celldweller.

With dubstep steadily rising to become the prevalent trend in electronic music in the mainstream and the underground alike, it is perhaps no surprise that Klayton has dug his hands into the style with his usual full throttle approach. Of course, given his incorporation of drum & bass over the years, which shares many elements with dubstep, one could say that it’s been part of the Celldweller aesthetic all along. From the get go with the 2012 mix of “Goodbye,” the listener is assaulted with a blistering array of glitchy vocals and guitars offset by stuttering synth leads and wobbly bass lines so intricately programmed that one easily becomes lost in the maelstrom. Other tracks follow suit, such as the Bare remix of “Louder than Words,” whose vicious assaults of synthesized extremity threaten to destroy the eardrums lest one decrease the volume a tad… but why would you want to? Similarly, the originally aggressive “I Can’t Wait” is transformed in Josh Money’s version into some industrialized dubstep that actually makes for one of the more melodic remixes thanks to some nicely arranged leads and arpeggios.

But before you fall for the joke and start to think that The Complete Cellout is just Klayton admittedly selling out to the electronic flavor of the week, there is plenty of stylistic variety at play on the album. Blue Stahli’s remix of “Birthright,” previously available on the Soundtrack for the Voices in My Head collection, is a brief but powerful display of glitch-laden madness that leads remarkably well into the dance floor fury that is “The Best It’s Gonna Get vs. Tainted,” a clever and energetic mashing of two very different songs from the Wish Upon a Blackstar chapters. The Drivepilot mix of “Eon” marches its way through the speakers before descending into an ambient and melodic bedrock and back again, making for a boot-stomping bit of industrial to shake things up. As well, Blue Stahli’s mix of “Shapeshifter” gets the blood flowing and the fists pumping with its gritty hip-hop/electro attacks, while Toksin’s Anhedonia mix of “So Long Sentiment” brings the collection to a frantic close with some atmospheric drum & bass.

While some may have found the Celldweller live show in its current incarnation analogous to a karaoke performance over a spastic DJ set, many welcomed and enjoyed the approach as a creative vision of what a live concert experience can be in the digital age. The interpretations presented on The Complete Cellout Vol. 01 offer merely a fraction of Celldweller’s power as a musical and artistic force, but they do present a substantive sampling of the level of diversity and excellence of production and performance Klayton infuses into his work. This writer recalls a friend’s statement upon seeing a Celldweller performance, “I’ve never seen an act so ready to be bigger than they are!” Listening to this album, one does get the sense that Celldweller has the chops to exceed even the best that the big names have up their sleeves. As fans await the completion of the Wish Upon a Blackstar release, The Complete Cellout Vol. 01 is a dynamic alternative to sate their appetites.
 
Track list:

1. The Complete Cellout
2. Goodbye (Klayton’s 2012 Mix)
3. Eon (Drivepilot Remix)
4. Own Little World (Klayton’s We Will Never Die Mix)
5. Louder than Words (Bare Remix)
6. Frozen (Celldweller vs. Blue Stahli)
7. I Can’t Wait (Josh Money Remix)
8. Birthright (Birthwrong Remix by Blue Stahli)
9. The Best It’s Gonna Get vs. Tainted
10. Shapeshifter feat. Stayles of Beyond (Blue Stahli Remix)
11. The Best It’s Gonna Get (J. Scott G. & Joman Remix)
12. So Long Sentiment (Toksin’s Anhedonia Mix)

 
Celldweller Website http://www.celldweller.com
Celldweller MySpace http://www.myspace.com/celldweller
Celldweller Facebook http://www.facebook.com/celldweller
Celldweller Twitter http://www.twitter.com/celldweller
Celldweller ReverbNation http://www.reverbnation.com/celldweller
FiXT Music Website http://www.fixtonline.com
FiXT Music MySpace http://www.myspace.com/fixt
FiXT Music Facebook http://www.facebook.com/fixtmusic
FiXT Store Website http://www.fixtstore.com
 
Purchase at:
Amazon CD
Amazon MP3
CDBaby
 
2012-01-10
 
Ilker Yücel (Ilker81x)