Album Review: Kelela - RAVE:N, The Remixes

I will start by saying this. The remixes which were released as singles did not do this album any form of justice. There are songs on RAVE:N, The Remixes which I think would have made really great singles, had the potential to blow up on TikTok, cross Kelela over and put her in the conversations she is often excluded from. Case in point — the LSDXOXO remix of “Sorbet”. But we’ll get to that. But Kelela not picking the best singles for commerciality is a course Kelela has always steered with such consistency that it’s like she does it on purpose. I never dislike the singles that she puts out. But I always feel that her singles end up being songs which are lessened greatly when released as singles, when they’re usually the songs which are part of a bigger picture and meant to be experienced as such. That bigger picture being an album.

Kelela gon’ Kelela.

But it’s more frustrating to witness Kelela release these really great songs and bodies of work which are simultaneously right for the time and timeless, just to see them get so grossly overlooked in favour of albums from white women. And then I think about the statement Kelela had put out with Raven.

I started this process from the feeling of isolation and alienation I’ve always had as a Black femme in dance music. Despite its Black origins, Raven is my first breath taken in the dark. An affirmation of Black femme perspective in the most of systemic erasure and the sound of our vulnerability turned to power.

And I’m like ‘Yep’. It’s happening again.

Unless you are a Black woman as popular as Beyoncé — who Billboard had titled as the number 1 Greatest Pop Star of the 21st Century — people will just not take your dance music seriously. And even with Beyoncé and Renaissance, everybody still categorised that album as R&B. And even with RAVE:N, The Remixes being a dance album through and through, it is also just being filed under R&B. All because the women on the album covers are Black.

Black women have always had a presence in dance music. Some of the biggest dance records in existence have been sung by Black women, despite the best efforts of those in power to remove these women from the music videos and not list them as featured artists. This shit has been happening since the early 90s. And here we are in big ol’ 2024, almost 40 years later with the same shit happening. But that’s a whole other post. And whilst this is an important topic which is a part of the fabric of RAVE:N, The Remixes, I want to celebrate what Kelela has achieved with this album, rather than focus on the lack of attention it’s getting. Because this album is great.

I guess it’s just as well that Kelela had taken her ass on a tour to spin the album her damn self.

Kelela - RAVE:N, The Remixes | Warp Records

Just as Raven felt like a completely different beast to Take Me Apart, RAVE:N, The Remixes also feels wholly different to TAKE ME A_PART, THE REMIXES, despite being approached in a similar way. What is so remarkable now having two remix albums from Kelela, is that she has a sound in a remixed form. And I think a large part of it is that Kelela’s music at its core has always been dance music. So it’s easy to imagine her making any of these remixes a part of her studio albums proper. TAKE ME A_PART, THE REMIXES informed so much of Raven sonically. So it’s no surprise that RAVE:N, The Remixes features songs which could easily be sequenced with songs from Raven.

One of the great things about Kelela and remixes, is that they aren’t just the same vocals from the original version of the song, arranged in the same way with a new beat slapped on top. These remixes completely change the energy, vibe and the fabric of the song. Kelela’s remixes are like a retelling of the original song, versus the original song with a different coat of paint. So listening to RAVE:N, The Remixes is almost like listening to a whole new album. Because to a degree, you kind of are. Some of the remixes even feature whole new vocals. Shout-outs to those who attended the Mariah Carey schools of remixes.

Kelela - RAVE:N, The Remixes | Warp Records

Kelela truly knows her sound and has a real knack for bringing talent into her sphere who are able to contribute to it and pull it in directions which make sense for her. Even from as far back as Cut 4 Me, Kelela has shown she had an amazing ear for curation. No matter how many different names are in the liner notes of her albums, they always manage to sound cohesive and singular. Across a 20 track remix album and the talents of 32 individuals, RAVE:N, The Remixes never feels unwieldy or unfocused. It feels so concisely considered, but not to a point where any of the remixers and guest features feel like they’re being throttled or forced to fit Kelela’s vision — which again, is a testament to her curation. She sought people out to do what they do, because she knew they’d understand the assignment and just…do it. And do it for her.

RAVE:N, The Remixes manages to find a balance between remixes expanding on the sonics and feelings of the originals, whilst also completely turning them on their head. The Ethereal remix of “Washed Away” true to the title, still retains the otherworldliness of the original, but adds a deep percussive set of drums to the mix. If the original version of “Washed Away” is a contemporary dance on the shore at sunset, then the remix is doing the running man whilst high on molly on the shore at night. The DJ Swisha remix of “Far Away” also does a similar thing — taking a drum-less soundscape and throwing a heavy set of drums on that bitch. And the sequencing of it coming after “Washed Away” also works brilliantly, because it provides that feeling of having danced right through the night and then shaking ass to the sunrise. Then there is the LSDXOXO remix of “Sorbet”, which manages to take an R&B slow jam song and flip it into some Eurobeat sounding-ass jam which would have the gyaru bussin’ moves in the middle of the street in Shibuya. Every remix on RAVE:N, The Remixes has an identity which is completely different to the original, yet somehow retains some essence of it. The original version of “Raven” was dark and emo as fuck. It was standing alone, brooding. Where-as the Agazero remix is still emo, except you’ve got some weed and are in a strip club, where all of the dancers on the poles are dressed as Edea from Final Fantasy VIII. And the TYGAPAW remix of “Raven” is still emo, except you’re now a cyber goth at a dance party. Even with the LSDXOXO remix of “Sorbet” being so much faster and more playful than the original and sounding like a 4 star difficulty song on ParaParaParadise, there is still a sensuality to it. The original version of “Sorbet” was a seduction. The LSDXOXO remix is a gay hookup with poppers in a room with red LED strip lights at some ungodly hour of the morning.

To use the multiverse to further illustrate what the songs on RAVE:N, The Remixes feel like. They are alternate universe versions of the original songs. You recognise them. They’re familiar to you. But also very different.

Kelela - RAVE:N, The Remixes | Warp Records

Dance music is not just one thing or one sound and RAVE:N, The Remixes really gets that in ways that other albums and those who categorise dance music as R&B don’t. There are no two songs on RAVE:N, The Remixes which sound alike. Every song is of a different tempo, has different textures and different vibes, and yet it’s all still dance music. And whilst the album as a whole feels very unified and works as a singular experience, some are going to gravitate to some sounds more than others. Fans of R&B are probably going to vibe with the smoother sounds of the Agazero remix of “Raven”, the Flexulant x BAMBII remix of “Closure” (well, the first half at least) and the JD. REID remix of “Holier”. Fans of deep house are going to vibe with the Karen Nyame KG remix of “Contact”. Fans of the Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike soundtrack are gonna dig the SUCIA! Remix of “Bruises”. And the gworls that like to vogue down real soft will gravitate towards the NGUZUNGUZU x DJ GAY-Z remix of “Let It Go”. At 20 tracks, RAVE:N, The Remixes uses every song to explore dance music and yet still only feels like it’s scratching the surface. But as much as this album is a celebration of dance music, it’s also dance music within the world of Raven and Kelela.

There is something on this album for everyone. But despite each song having a very specific point of view and tapping into a specific vibe, the songs manage to coexist to form one whole. So you may lean towards one song, but still have an appreciation of RAVE:N, The Remixes as a body of work. Especially with the ways in which the songs are structured, sequenced and transition into one another. Much like Beyoncé’s Renaissance, you really can just run this album from the top. In fact, I find the songs work better this way. Every time I go straight to listen to one particular song, I find myself saying ‘Fuck it’ and running the entire thing from the top.

Kelela - RAVE:N, The Remixes | Warp Records

RAVE:N, The Remixes truly feels like an album for Black people who love dance music, from a collective of non white people who all love dance music as a whole. Kelela even brings Yaeji into the mix. A girl who is a bit too out there for the Korean market, but not K-pop enough for the American market. And yet, she finds a place here. Black women. They stay being inclusional, even whilst being excluded themselves. And the end result is an album which feels like a celebration of the spectrum of dance music. A spectrum which exists because of the involvement of so many Black DJs, producers and musicians who criss-cross, fuse, mashup and intersect so many different styles. Which is why some songs have an R&B flavour, fusions of different styles of African music, hints of the type of house records you hear in ballroom. And then you have somebody like Yaeji bringing their intersectionality to the table.

Raven was a dance album at its core and RAVE:N, The Remixes really highlight that and runs with it. And this also connects with the themes of Raven, both lyrically and musically — water, renewal, purging and letting things go. But the BPM being bumped up for the remixes and each of them being so much more bass and drum heavy is an invitation to let everything go by dancing it all away. To dance is to be free, and RAVE:N, The Remixes feels like Kelela saying ‘Here. Dance it all away to this and be free.’ But RAVE:N, The Remixes also feels like something to experience after you have done the work of letting it go. The basking of being free. It doesn’t feel as heavy as Raven did. So this also helps the two albums feel truly like partners. You gotta go through Raven first to get to RAVE:N, The Remixes. But with this said, RAVE:N, The Remixes is a much more accessible album than Raven is. To such a degree, that if I were to put somebody onto Kelela with either of these albums, I would make them listen to RAVE:N, The Remixes first. Raven is a great album. I adore it. But it’s a very ‘if you get it, you get it, and if you don’t, you don’t’ type of album, which could very easily put people off of it. The songs don’t have immediate hooks. There is a lot of sparseness. It’s dark. The listening experience is far more lax and cerebral. Comparatively, RAVE:N, The Remixes has so much more energy, vibrance and sounds which are easier to latch onto for most. But with this said, RAVE:N, The Remixes doesn’t feel like a dilution of Kelela in any way which would make Raven or Take Me Apart a surprise if they were experienced after it. It would just make the pieces fit together differently.

Kelela - RAVE:N, The Remixes | Warp Records

Yet another overlooked release from Kelela to add to the pile. It really is a shame that this album flew under the radar, because it really was so right for the time in 2024 and still feels right now. It will always feel right, because the sound of the album is so timeless.

RAVE:N, The Remixes is a great dance album which not only plays so freely within the parameters of dance music, but shits on the parameters that Black women in music are constantly put in and made to feel they cannot break beyond. There is just something about when Black women do dance music that hits a certain way and RAVE:N, The Remixes is a Killer Instinct Ultra combo on my wig. Hopefully the same way that TAKE ME A_PART, THE REMIXES inferred Raven, RAVE:N, The Remixes will infer whichever studio album Kelela releases next. Let us put out blonde T-Boz wigs into the water and pray.

Album highlights
▪ Contact (Karen Nyame KG Remix) 🏅
▪ Closure (Flexulant x BAMBII Remix) 🏅
▪ Holier (JD. REID Remix)
▪ Bruises (SUCIA! Remix) 🏅
▪ Washed Away (Ethereal Remix)
▪ Far Away (DJ Swisha Remix) 🏅
▪ Raven (TYGAPAW Remix) 🏅
▪ Sorbet (LSDXOXO Remix) 🥇
▪ Missed Call (KYRUH Remix) 🏅
▪ Happy Ending (A.G Remix)
▪ Let It Go (NGUZUNGUZU x DJ GAY-Z Remix) 🥇
▪ Enough for Love (TAYHANA Remix)
▪ Divorce (Loraine James Remix)

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💿 Album reviews: Take Me Apart | TAKE ME A_PART, THE REMIXES | Raven