DJ Shadow shreds his take of “Digital Bath” of any allure. The common flaw is that White Pony is scarcely expanded upon most of the new mixes are content to lift the vocal melodies while ignoring the multiple stylistic victories of White Pony. Purity Ring strips “Knife Prty” of its seduction and replace it with tepid pop. Phantogram’s dreamy “Street Carp” samples Moreno’s vocals without interacting with the original. Salva’s “Rx Queen” offers little not already supplied by the original. The majority of Black Stallion is simply afraid to engage with its source material. The atmospheric production is washed, the air of disenfranchisement is left on the cutting room floor and the rawness is discarded.
It flounders as a 20th anniversary celebration of White Pony because most of the remixes don’t expand upon or highlight the core strengths of the classic. Yet despite its first-string lineup, Black Stallion is supplemental. The project ballooned and brought along the likes of Clams Casino, Mike Shinoda, Purity Ring and Squarepusher to rechristen White Pony into an electronic album. Originally, DJ Shadow was set to handle all the remixes due to Moreno’s love of Endtroducing…. So how did it end up that White Pony’s legacy was marked by a remix album that plays more like a Chino Moreno sample pack?īlack Stallion has, in concept, existed since White Pony. For all the atmosphere in their riffs that they tear from White Pony, these subordinates ignore the punchiness. It essentialized nu metal’s primal appeal of angst and down-tuned, groovy guitars while recognizing the latent artistic potential of the genre by embracing trip-hop production and gothic soundscapes. Want the charred gristle and fat grooves of Limp Bizkit? Want the unconventional seasoning and technicality of Mudvayne? Want the meatiness and rage of Slipknot? White Pony encompassed all that. Twenty years ago, White Pony dismantled nu metal by elevating every aspect of a genre at its cultural peak.