- Kane West has been PC Music's de facto dance floor correspondent since Western Beats. Even so, if you told me last year that an artist from PC Music was releasing an EP on Turbo, I'd have looked at you funny. It's an unlikely affiliation that came about through a remix competition West won, wherein he remade an already silly Tiga & Boyz Noize track with a goofy bassline and cheap presets. As with the stark simplicity of Western Beats, however, there was a certain charm to it—enough to warrant a full EP on Tiga's label. Expenses Paid is both fun and frustrating.
The hallmarks of West's "100" remix are all here, particularly the insistent, squiggling basslines and the stiffly-programmed hand percussion (including what might, in fact, be too much cowbell). The recipe works best on "Recycle Bin," a breezy track where the cowbell gets spun and delayed like it's caught in a wind tunnel. Those little effects go a long way, and they're sadly missed on other tracks, like the flat Mad Decent-isms of "Don't Stop" and its listlessly repeating vocal sample. "Mexicans" has a wonky lead that sounds like a kid going nuts with the pitch wheel on a Casio keyboard, and the wacky noise makes its drab backdrop somehow more underwhelming. The title cut is almost as good as "Recycle Bin," however, and is a banner example of what made Western Beats interesting. That freewheeling EP looms over Expenses Paid, which tries to fit into techno and house templates at the expense of the naïve charm that characterized West's earlier work.
Tracklist01. Mexicans
02. Expenses Paid
03. Don't Stop
04. Recycle Bin