Subversive duo R WE WHO R WE, featuring composer/performers Ted Hearne (vocals) and Philip White (mixer feedback), reimagines, dissects, and radically reconstructs the cover album.

On February 26, 2013, the subversive duo R WE WHO R WE, featuring composer/performers TED HEARNE (vocals) and PHILIP WHITE (mixer feedback), reimagine, dissect and radically reconstruct the “cover album” with the release of their first (eponymous) album on NEW FOCUS RECORDINGS. The recording features the duo’s versions of several hits from the pop world -- some iconic, some ephemeral -- refracted through their irreverent, experimental lens that is equally informed by their backgrounds in avant garde classical music and underground electronic music. The result straddles the line between ironic commentary on contemporary pop anthems and innovative dance tracks in their own right, all generated with the sparest of musical materials, but producing an impressively broad expressive range.
R WE WHO R WE mixes the free theft/collage style of digital sampling virtuoso Girl Talk with the raw noise of Japanese noise artist Merzbow. Philip White’s mixer feedback, controlled through a homemade rig of circuits and low-fi electronics, conjures the sound world of legendary experimental musician David Tudor, but becomes something entirely new when fused with the production aesthetics of pop pioneer Dr. Luke. Ted Hearne’s voice - inflamed, athletic and powerfully stark, with the operatic drama of a latter day Jeff Buckley, the experimentalism of Mike Patton and party chic of Ke$ha herself – does battle with his own auto-tune. A tribute and commentary to both classic and ephemeral artists of the pop landscape, R WE WHO R WE uses pop music like graffiti uses public space, exploiting the tension between theft and tribute, like collage artist John Oswald did 30 years ago with his seminal and mischievous Plunderphonic.
“Material Gurl” brings an unexpected tenderness to the classic anthem from Madonna, while “Just the Chorus Now” puts a solo mic in the hands of the affirmative backup chorus from Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror,” and “Emotions” transforms Mariah Carey’s iconic 1991 performance on The Arsenio Hall Show into a churning exorcism. “Hi is my Name” electrifies the opening track from Eminem’s The Slim Shady LP with a compulsively methodical yet manic rendition, and “Gucci Gucci” makes the breakout hit from Oakland hipster Kreayshawn an Adderall-infused dancehall romp.

R WE WHO R WE mixes the free theft/collage style of digital sampling virtuoso Girl Talk with the raw noise of Japanese noise artist Merzbow. Philip White’s mixer feedback, controlled through a homemade rig of circuits and low-fi electronics, conjures the sound world of legendary experimental musician David Tudor, but becomes something entirely new when fused with the production aesthetics of pop pioneer Dr. Luke. Ted Hearne’s voice - inflamed, athletic and powerfully stark, with the operatic drama of a latter day Jeff Buckley, the experimentalism of Mike Patton and party chic of Ke$ha herself – does battle with his own auto-tune. A tribute and commentary to both classic and ephemeral artists of the pop landscape, R WE WHO R WE uses pop music like graffiti uses public space, exploiting the tension between theft and tribute, like collage artist John Oswald did 30 years ago with his seminal and mischievous Plunderphonic.

www.newfocusrecordings.com/catalogue/r-we-who-r-we/