On Rotation: Remixed
I’ve got a few remixes from SoundCloud that have been bouncing around several of my playlists lately. While they don’t necessarily fit perfectly together, here, humbly, are seven tracks with the (almost entirely out-of-date) little remix news I have:
- Frankie Rose’s “Apples for the Sun” has been remixed by the Go! Team with the beats and xylophone trills one can expect from the peppy Brighton six-piece. There’s always a lot of energy with the Go! Team, and their use of distortion usually makes me feel a bit like everything’s going down under a giant static-filled blanket.
- An Amtrac remix of Chromatic’s Birds of Paradise slaps the original brooding track around with some old school funk samples. Depends what you’re in the mood for, but this is a completely fun change up after a whole lot of moody Chromatics listens.
- Washed Out gets his hands on My Morning Jacket’s “Outta My System,” and, ooh boy, it’s really lovely. Most of the lyrics have been replaced with ruminations on consciousness that seem at home in some new age-y lecture or soul seminar, and then a few quiet “Outta My System” soundwaves wash back in to lap everything up.
- Someone has squished Blithe Field’s “Crushing” and Joanna Newsom’s “Peach, Plum, Pear” into a music sandwich. I can guess it’s not a flavor that everyone’s going to love, but I’ve found myself growing a bit partial to Newsom, that strange swoopy voiced siren. Patrick Simons put the excellent “Crushing” on my radar last year, and the two tracks together become a bit like hazy human catnip on longer drives.
- Rummage’s “dub rubdown” of Bon Iver’s Perth is labelled as “dub,” but I don’t know my way around dubstep music well enough to make any real statements on that - it’s the gentlest “dubstep” I’ve heard, I guess. Is dub different from dubstep? In any case, it’s a great addition to the calmer side of Bon Iver remixes. Just enough pulse to pick things up a bit, but still remains true to the Perthy essence of things. Or something.
- For a little more twang: the most perfect Tallest Man on Earth gets a little pep in his step with RythmiA’s rehash of “Blizzard.” Overall, it feels very non-invasive, if that’s a word you can use in this very non-serious context. (“Doctor, will it live? Will the remix live?”) Anyway, it very much remains true to the loveliest folk singer stomping around our planet at this point in time, and mostly it just adds a bit of a beat if you’d like to take said folk singer out for a run sometime.
- Finally, Kodak to Graph takes us on a breezy time warp back to the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There” days. ”I’ll Be There” has always made me feel a bit lonely thinking of the family drama inevitably brewing behind that iconic love song, but it feels especially dark now given the most recent drama of the Jackson Clan, what with the kidnapping accusations and the like. Hmm. But yes, I don’t know, it’s a very classic song, and Kodak to Graph gives it a different sort of weight here when he pulls it apart to all of its small pieces. This guy can make even Justin Bieber feel semi-poignant, so it makes for an interesting re-experience of the songs if nothing else.
Hopefully you’ll find at least one track you can enjoy. If not, then at least know I tend to agree - these are great, but there’s usually no replacing the originals.
- Maggie
[Image from Kodak to Graph’s Facebook page]
