"Remix albums can be tricky things—for every successful collection of re-imagined, blip- and bloop-laden tracks (think anything from Radiohead), there’s yet another tiresome and perplexing version of a Björk album you didn’t bother listening to in the first place. At their best, remix albums shine a new light on band; at their worst, they simply slather perfectly good songs with some lousy club beats.

Happily, a new remix album from Milwaukee synth-pop outfit Faux Fir is anything but inessential, and a surprisingly good introduction to the band. The appropriately titled Second Pass features re-worked versions of songs originally found on the group’s 2010 self-titled EP. Among the remixers are local knob-twiddlers Made Of Oak, The Glamour, Adoptahighway, and The Harvey Girls. The songs range from gauzy and atmospheric (“Work Suite”) to bouncy and poppy (“Baggage Claim”) to gauzy and atmospheric again (“Rose Colored Glasses”).

We’ll be honest: We missed the original Faux Fir album the first time around, but are seriously digging Second Pass. Both albums can be streamed on the group’s Bandcamp site, and are also available as free downloads." The Onion AV Club

http://fauxfir.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/fauxfir

STACIAN

"There’s an easy way and a hard way to make a synth-pop album in the 21st century. The easy way, of course, would be to embrace the genre’s synthetic origins and record and release the entire project digitally. One-woman synth act Stacian—a.k.a. Milwaukee’s Dania Luck—elects for the hard way. Stacian’s new Songs For Cadets was first recorded on a four-track cassette recorder, and then transferred to a computer for final editing and release on Moniker Records. That extra analog step may seem like a case of working harder and not smarter, but it lends Cadets an unexpected—and welcome—DIY warmth." The Onion AV Club

https://www.facebook.com/pages/STACIAN/119189024772327

http://stacian.bandcamp.com/