The Un-Releases

In early 2000, the music collective known as Chicks on Speed emerged from a very art-damaged electronic scene in Munich, Germany. Without a second's warning, Chicks on Speed took both the art and music worlds by storm, designing fashion shows, performing, and recording two records in under two years. And in that short time after their art-school formation, they were taken under the wings of Austrian electro-glitch producers Gerhard Potuznik and Ramon Bauer, only to become instant stars on the intelligent club circuit. Their first domestic record, The Re-releases of the Un-releases, is a brilliant collection of their early work as remixed by Bauer and Potuznik. The Re-releases is raw and unpolished but somehow charming and a bit more personal than their import-only full-length Will Save Us All. As well, The Re-releases preserves the studio chatter between the Chicks and their producers and includes strikingly innovative covers of the B-52's "Gimme Back My Man," the Normals' "Warm Leatherette" (with DJ Hell), and the Delta 5's "Mind Your Own Business." Although Chicks on Speed was originally conceived as an art installation project, they've obviously found a niche within synthetic pop music and they exhibit an impressive amount of songwriting skill and social commentary. Their humor is definitely tongue-in-cheek but is nevertheless relentless when it comes to teasing out the shortcomings of the international club scene. As well, they maintain a strong feminist perspective as they stride headlong into that territory via the tracks "Eurotrash Girl," "Glamour Girl," and "Song for a Future Generation." But while they may have found a great way of disguising their social jabs as humor, Chicks on Speed ultimately just want to have fun. With the Re-leases of the Un-releases, they do just that.