Puscifer will always be best known as one of the many creative outlets for Tool / A Perfect Circle vocalist Maynard James Keenan, and as an avenue for the most obscure depths of his musical creativity. But the band has always been a collaborative affair, with Keenan working alongside many different artists over the years, with their albums subsequently always providing an infusion of many different ideas and experiences. Existential Reckoning : Rewired (Puscifer Entertainment / Alchemy Recordings/ BMG) is the remix accompaniment to their 2020 album, which itself was a typically avant-garde electro-rock melting pot of futuristic and otherworldly sounds. 

And this reimaging provides a highly experimental concoction of songs, by an impressive and high-class motley crew of remixers and sound distorters, with the songs all thread together by the soothing and often angelic-sounding voice of Keenan. Throughout much of the record, there is a downbeat and almost lazy vibe, highlighted first on opener ‘Bread And Circus’, with Puscifer’s own Mat Mitchell providing an eighties-style synth-heavy sound, to watch an Ibizan sunset to.

The biggest draw on the release comes with the remix of ‘Apocalyptical’ by Trent Reznor and long-time collaborator Atticus Ross, which begins with Maynard’s soaring vocals set against a thudding beat and another eighties synth that conjures up the image of driving a Porsche at night, through a rainy floodlit landscape. As the track progresses, a classic Reznor sound starts to inject itself providing the feel of a Pretty Hate Machine era NIN. Perhaps the stand-out moment of the release comes from Puscifer’s Carina Round, as her ethereal take on ‘A Singularity’ slowly builds with a buzzing bassline as the track journeys through to a hauntingly beautiful and uplifting finale.

Other highlights are provided by the joining of Queens Of The Stone Age/ A Perfect Circle / Gone Is Gone guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and At The Drive In drummer Tony Hajjar on ‘Grey Area’, which is Sci-Fi influenced and experimentally offbeat, and on ‘Postulous’ where New York duo Phantogram provide a quirky Trip-Hop style, with Maynards prominent Spaceman-esq vocals. Elsewhere Nine Inch Nails collaborator Alessandro Cortini dissimilates ‘Bullet Train To Iowa’, into one long atmospheric haze, Sarah Jones (formerly of – Bat For Lashes / Bloc Party / Hot Chip) and Jordan Fish (Bring Me The Horizon) provide a pulsating slab of techno on ‘Theorem’, and go to Rock remixer Scott Kirkland (The Crystal Method) hooks up with Tool bassist Justin Chancellor, to produce a deep rolling cut full of intelligent drum n’ bass style breakbeats.   

Buy the album here: 

https://puscifer.lnk.to/ReWired

7 / 10

ABSTRAKT_SOUL_