Puscifer “Existential Reckoning: Rewired”: Review-inventive album offers intriguing remixes from Maynard James Keeenan fronted 2020 album. 

Remix albums are a curious beast. Some are essential, adding new dimensions to established songs. Others are filler, offering excessive, bloated renditions that undermine the power of the original material. So where does Puscifer’s new remix album Existential Reckoning: Rewired (March 31, Puscifer Enertainment/Alchemy Recordings/BMG) fit on the sliding scale of quality?

It’s a testament to Maynard James Keenan and co’s quality control that Rewired is such a compelling reinterpretation of an already pretty stellar album in its original 2020 incarnation. And the collaborators involved in the project bring their A-game.

Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross take on Apocalyptical, adding propulsive warped synth stabs and a haunting closing melody that recalls both Eraser and Closer from The Downward Spiral, but makes for seamless additions to the original quirky track. Elsewhere, former NIN member Alessandro Cortini goes full synthwave on Bullet Train to Iowa, distorting and tweaking Keenan’s vocals until he sounds like a robot with laryngitis.

QOTSA’s Troy Van Leeuwen & Gone is Gone’s Tony Hajjar join forces on Grey Area, adding spacey and eerie effects that augment the song’s original sci-fi atmospherics, while Phantogram go into hypnotic, ghostly overdrive on their remix of Postulous.

It’s worth noting that quite a few of the mixes are from the band itself: multi-instrumentalist Mat Mitchell tackles Bread and Circus, welding a skeletal chassis of the original strutted by adding heavily echoing percussion, stuttering delayed vocals and stabbing keyboard bleeps, while vocalist Carina Round goes for a more understated sensual approach with her take of A Singularity.

Hired hand Greg Edwards (also of Failure), brings his unique knack for dissonant hooks to Personal Prometheus, retrofitted with acoustic strums and trip-hop ambiance, while The Underwhelming (Re-imagined by former Puscifer collaborator Juliette Commagere) brings a tribal drum fueled, airy arrangement that makes for an even more euphoric rendition than the original.

Perhaps the most notable contributor is Keenan’s Tool bandmate Justin Chancellor, who teams up with The Crystal Method’s  Scott Kirkland for UPGrade, which sounds like a disembodied AI entity over haunting electronic textures.

The whole affair concludes with Bedlamite (Re-imagined by BBC 1’s Daniel P. Carter), transforming the plaintive emotive number into a triumphant straight ahead rocker, with a stripped-down approach at odds with most modern remixes (and all the better for it).

Whether Existential Reckoning: Rewired is an essential purchase for casual Puscifer fans largely depends on the fan’s commitment to Keenan’s long-running experimental project, but it is an artful and intriguing collection that will reward repeat listens for the devout faithful, as we await wherever the collective go next.