100 gecs – 1000 gecs and The Tree of Clues Review
Though their creative decisions often annoy me, I can’t deny that the amount of fun they’re clearly having with these songs is rather infectious.
My first impressions of 100 gecs, the duo of Laura Les and Dylan Brady, since they burst onto the scene last year with their debut studio album 1000 gecs have not been good. Overall, I found both the snippets of their music played by my flatmate and their “oh we’re not taking ourselves seriously XD” attitude to be, honestly, rather annoying – it seemed to me a thin veil behind which they could hide from scrutiny. That said, I’m going to try to go into this latest release, “1000 gecs and The Tree of Clues”, with an open mind. A remix album with several impressive features throughout, “The Tree of Clues” gives us three new tracks and at least one remix of almost every song from “1000 gecs” (only “I Need Help Immediately” being snubbed). 19 tracks long, it is quite difficult to go into as a relative newcomer but shows some serious ambition from the pair expanding on the existing track inventory of their debut.
The LP opens with A.G. Cook’s remix of 100 gecs most popular song, “money machine”. I have to say, I think this is a rather solid remix. The original version of this song, only 1 minute 53 seconds long, seems to cut off before it had a chance to take off. This remix, with the extra minute or so added on, has the chance to have a much more satisfying climax and welcome room to breathe. While this song is never going to be my favourite, the style does not play at all to my taste, A.G. Cook succeeds in filling the track out for me. The remix for “ringtone” follows this, with features from Charli XCX, Rico Nasty and Kero Kero Bonito – an eclectic mix. However, I have to say their chemistry on this track is great. One of my many qualms with the original 1000 gecs record was the lack of solid verses as pretty much everything was chorus with the occasional bridge. These features definitely bring their verse writing ability to the table here and, similarly to “money machine”, make this track feel a lot more complete than it did before. Though I hate to admit it, this is actually a really sweet pop song.
Continuing the surprisingly strong start to this record is the Injury Reserve remix of “745 sticky”. The original version of this song is really quite annoying, with autotuned used and abused beyond any sort of taste, though I did really enjoy the cadence of the hook. I really like the production changes on this remix, bringing a slightly more industrial sound to it and far punchier percussion. I do not enjoy Ritchie with a T’s vocals on the first leg of the song though, his flow is quite jarring and doesn’t really seem to flow at all. However, him and Dylan Brady do a much better job on the outro, which I really enjoy.
100 gecs are many things, but I think I’d usually struggle to describe them as boring. The original version of “gec 2 u” is an exception to that rule though. And while there are great improvements to the impact of the song on Danny L Harle’s remix, I still don’t necessarily feel it is that impressive or creative a remix on the whole. While it now means that the song could be used in a club setting, well repurposed I must admit, by the end of the track there is pretty much none of the identity of the original track left – it just sounds like any club remix. “Hand crushed by a mallet” is quite a difficult song for me to decide whether or not I like. I can’t believe that they decided that they’d include Fall Out Boy in 2020; Patrick Stump’s voice on the introduction to the song I find to be a bit cringe-worthy by association. That said, there are several parts of the song that go really hard. The last 15 seconds or so with the repeated screaming sound definitely detract without bringing much of interest though.
It’s at this point in the track list where I am really overwhelmed by the number of tracks included but also at this point that the quality seems to tail off a little. It is important, though, to note that since this is a remix album, the purpose is not for it to be listened to as an album. Though I feel that having 19 tracks is a weakness, they were not intended to be listened to back-to-back and instead just leave the bulk of the stronger tracks in the front end of the album. That said, there is definitely a string of less interesting remixes at this point, namely “800db cloud (Ricco Harver Remix)”, “stupid horse (Remix)” and “ringtone (umru Remix)”. This “ringtone” remix in particular adds very little of interest to the original version.
“xXXi_wud_nvrstøp_ÜXXx (Remix)” is rather ambitious, bringing in features from Tommy Cash, who brings in a great Pitbull parody to open the track, and Hannah Diamond, who I feel does a much better job of delivering the chorus than Laura Les. Tommy Cash also brings quite a fun verse into the mix, again moving the song away from effectively just being a chorus as in the original. I also think that the eurodance style of the remix suits 100 gecs pretty perfectly and this song specifically. 99jakes’ remix of this song is much worse, employing an awful amount of chipmunk voice. This highlights a weakness of this album: for the 5 songs which were given two remixes on “The Tree of Clues”, each has one which is much more ambitious and, I would argue, clearly better. It makes little sense to me why they chose to include a second remix for each of these outside of a pointlessness to solo release.
The album also includes three original songs not included on “1000 gecs”. The first two of these were first played at MineGala: “came to my show” and “toothless”. “came to my show” features some, I assume, deliberately dorky Minecraft references over some piano arpeggios. Overall, I do like this song other than the reappearance of the chipmunk vocals. “toothless” is better though, with a solid eurodance vibe to it – really the sound with which I think 100 gecs thrive the most when creating. “small pipe” is also new, but is taken from a live show at the fishcenter. This track is only a minute or so in length, but one of the most unique songs within the 100 gecs catalogue (who are, in themselves, rather unique). It sounds a little like the start of “Flamingo” by Kero Kero Bonito and honestly I think that, had it been fleshed out into a fuller song, it probably would have been one of my favourites.
100 gecs is probably one of the most polarising musical projects in recent years, which unfortunately has not managed to get me onside. Despite this, there are some surprisingly good remixes on this album which truly enhance or complement their respective songs. Though their creative decisions often annoy me, I can’t deny that the amount of fun they’re clearly having with these songs is rather infectious. There are still a number of issues I have with this project though: the sheer number of features does not allow for any of them to make their mark properly on any of the songs; for the songs with two remixes here, it would not have been difficult to choose one (with a longer tracklist there needs to be real justification for each song’s presence); and the reappearance of the baby voice is still just as headache-inducing as it was before. Regardless, their chorus writing and production show a lot of talent, so I will be tuned in to whatever they release in the future — even if just due to morbid curiosity.
