[.ca] Refreaked

From Amazon.co.uk:
Eight tracks from Dzihan & Kamien's debut long-player, Refreaked get the most subtle of re-rubs. No major missteps here, but then again neither are there any mind-blowing revolutions, with most of the remixers opting for slight changes over complete overhauls. Fauna Flash inject a little adrenaline into "Just You & I". Hefner unfortunately steers the proceedings in the other direction with a lethargic reading of "Slowhand Hussein". Eddy & Dus keep "Smile"'s pop structure mostly intact, simply throwing in a little extra mellow percussion, while Fox 42 engage in a slightly more adventurous, trancier deconstruction of the same track. At Jazz bring "After" out of the humid confines of the R & B club and under the vast skies of the outback. Mum are the only folks who truly get their freak on, reducing "Streets of Istanbul" to a tapestry of human groans and low bass burps. Throw in two agreeable Dzihan & Kamien tracks not available on the original record and you've got yourself almost an hour of dependable, if not defining, downtempo. --Bob Michaels

Chronique amazon.fr:
Ce duo autrichien venu des meilleurs rangs de l'école viennoise propose ici les remix des titres de son dernier album Freaks & Icons.Ainsi, les amis des Dzihan & Kamien, issu des scènes de leur pays mais aussi allemande et anglaise oscillent entre down-tempo aux percussions orientalisantes, trip-hop multi-influences, break beats percussifs parfois groovy et atmosphériques, tantôt agrémentés de guitare élecro-funk, tantôt de piano et d'harmonium jazzy (comme sur le "Spacewater" de Menu B). Parmi tout cela l'on retiendra les très réussis et presque tubesques "Before" d'Herbert pour la house délicate (dont il a le secret), "Smile" d'Eddie & Dus avec une voix féminine fraîche et gracieuse, ou encore "After" d'At Jazz pour un dub groovy teinté de flûtes atmosphériques qui constitue le principal intérêt de ce disque à travers une deep house quasi hypnotique. --Luc Demont

robbing the tracks of their mystery:
Freaks and Icons was a complex, deep album: at the same time funky, dubby, playful, and atmospheric. Here the tracks have been robbed of much of their flavor, reduced to somewhat sterile beats and jazzy cliches. Too many of the Middle Eastern samples have been deleted from the mixes by remixers who might understand dance music but obviously don't understand the subtle middle-eastern touches which graced Freaks and Icons. The result is that as you listen to each song you notice how much more you prefer the original and wonder why on God's earth somebody was allowed to mess it up so badly? Its a shame because with appropriate remixers who understand world dance music - say Talvin Singh, Loop Guru, Transglobal Underground, or downtempo specialists like K & D or Kid Loco a remix LP could have worked. One absolutely great track, however, the previously unreleased and blessedly unremixed 2 Minutes reveals the vast difference between Dzihan and Kamien's own work and the hack remixes on the compilation....

good:
not great. not much better than the first one, but good listening.

Refreaked=Remixed:
Instead of "new" material, this is the remixes from Freaks & Icons with the likes of UFO, Hefner, AtJazz, Mum, etc. Very limited vocals, mostly taking splinters of Freaks & Icons and making jazzy instrumentals out of them. Everything is remixed enough that it sounds new, which works for me, but nothing really outshines its original. It avoids being monotonous yet sounds better as background music. Essential only to people like me who can't get enough from Vienna. Definitely not an intro album (get Freaks & Icons first), but still enjoyable.

• Before \oHerberts After Dub\c
• Homebase \oVienna Vista Sexual Dub\c
• Slowhand Hussein (Hefner Remix)
• Smile (Eddy & Dus Kontrapunkt Mix)
• Just You & I (Fauna Flash Remix)
• After (At Jazz Remix)
• Carta De Cuducao (Butterkeks Remix)
• Smile (Nine Bar's Fox 42 Remix)
• Streets of Istanbul (Mum's East West Remix)
• Spacewater (Menu B's Parish Remix)
• 2 Minutes