Cities

Variations EP

[3/5] What happens when the tight-wound post-rock of Chapel Hill hipsters Cities becomes the aural plaything of some of the most inventive laptop jockeys and knob twiddlers this side of DJ Krush? Well, lets just say for those of you familiar with Cities’ recently released anthemic, dirgy Coldplay-meets-Muse self-titled effort, Variations is entirely different. Under the helm of the likes of Ladytron, CacheFlowe and Daedelus, Cities have literally been picked up and moved into an entirely different musical ZIP code-sometimes good, sometimes not so much. “Writing On The Wall,” originally the fourth track off the regular album, opens the remix collection with a sampledelic dance-club overhaul from Ladytron while Mild Davis’ take on the original album opener “A Theme” broils with otherworldly sound effects and stabs of robotic keyboards dance over pulsing beats. Fog’s remix of “OOC” is, well, something else. (YEP ROC) Casey Lynch