remix

Gone Are All the Days Remix

priyanka — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 08:00:00 +0000

It’s a hard to imagine releasing a 12” vinyl maxi singles in an MP3-obsessed world, but that’s what K Records have boldly done for Mirah’s remix of "Gone Are All the Days." While angel-voiced Mirah could hardly be compared to club-hit-making ladies such as Lady Gaga or Madonna, this remix tries to come close.

The main track, a disco remix of the song “Gone Are All the Days” from Mirah’s fourth record (a)spera, reworks the otherwise jazzy song into a floor burner. On the original Mirah’s breathy vocals and the piano and jazz bass supporting her make the song sound like it would be at home on a Feist record. Not this one.

According to several music blogs, when the song was performed live it began to take on a disco feeling and so Mirah and her band recorded it in Calvin Johnson’s Dub Narcotic studios as a full-on disco track. It begins with a bouncy beat that at first feels overly typical and almost amateurish, but as the track evolves, so does the beat and the feeling. The song, a dark meditation on times past, mistakes made and feelings changed and lost, becomes a joyous dance floor romp. As the beats pulse and Mirah’s vocals soar above them, the listener can easily picture a club full of sweaty, scantily clad dancers with their hands in the air.

While the indie rock crowd has been obsessed with Mirah since she broke onto the scene with her debut record You Think It’s Like This But Really It’s Like This, the Gone Are All the Days Remix might be her chance to cross over, if only surreptitiously, by a DJ in the know slipping the record onto the turntables for an otherwise unaware crowd. As if inviting further remixing, and providing an example of how to do so, the record also includes a remix by Hooliganship and an all-vocal version of the song. While the additional remixes are interesting in themselves, they tend to get repetitive if one was to listen to the single all the way through. That and it’s 12” vinyl format indicates it would appeal to hardcore Mirah fans, or DJs looking to expand their repertoire.

Written by: Eleanor Whitney, October 11th 2010

Feed the Animals

admin — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:56:00 +0000

By Girl Talk

Illegal Art

When I heard the first Girl Talk album a few years back, I was pretty excited. It isn’t like remixing is innovative, nor is Gregg Gillis fashioning a new art form (even if he has made it more fashionable again). Sound collage has been around since Frank Zappa and Negativland made waves in decades past (and current), and DJs had been making beautiful mash-ups in clubs long before professors and college kids alike decided The Grey Album was a novel concept. But I liked hearing almost-recognizable '80s tracks under the latest dance craze, so I stuck with the unlikely DJ. Upon the arrival of the newest effort from the Pittsburgh-based laptop fiend, who more than a few of us grew up alongside, I remained optimistic while knowing I could be in for far too much of the same. Eight years is a long time to remix pop samples, even if you’re good at it.

And yet, Feed the Animals is fun, if excessively hip-hop heavy, at times, and a welcome change from older tracks that have since become far too repetitive in my iTunes. Once you get past the first two tracks, the album - which felt sort of a pair of shoes too bulky, heels too high to properly walk - becomes suddenly comfortable. Suddenly you’re ready to dance down the block and catch yourself wondering if that’s a Mya track from 1998 next to 2008 Britney Spears. Who knew Hot Chip mixed so well with Big Country? It all sounds so suddenly similar, or at the very least, complimentary.

Perhaps this is how sampling is supposed to evolve: new music, available for free via download, every so often. Otherwise, will we get bored? Did we already? The difference now is that what once felt like intangible club remixes now come out of your computer speakers. And maybe that magic was supposed to be left behind at the end of the night out, but I’m pretty into bringing it home.

Written by: Brittany Shoot, July 27th 2008

Fabric 39

admin — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:47:00 +0000

By Robert Hood

Fabric Records

Robert “Noise” Hood is one of the original members of the Detroit collective Underground Resistance (UR) and a solo DJ with an incredible discography. His work is informed by militant politics of music as a tool for social chance, and coming out of Reagan-era inner city Detroit, his radical views are personally informed. Solo after leaving UR in 1992, Hood still focuses on minimalist techno and has since also started his own label, M-Print, on which he continues to release collaborations with other UR artists.

On Fabric 39, we find Hood remixing disco samples and focusing on heavy repetition. In terms of this record as part of the ongoing Fabric and FabricLive series, I think it’s safe to say this album falls outside what some have come to expect from the collection. But this departure is in no way a negative thing. It should, instead, push people’s expectations about what a techno or dance album has been and will be in the future.

Hood doesn’t use mainstream samples in heavy rotation, and his music can seem a bit obscure in that sense. You don’t catch a ten second beat you know from your childhood and jump up to dance, but the album grows on you, and its fast repetitive beats, which are not immediately catchy, become mesmerizing the longer you listen. It also reminds me of the DJs on my more youthful days in the Midwestern rave scene, so despite the album’s lack of initial appeal, it holds a soft spot in my former ravergrrrl heart.

Written by: Brittany Shoot, June 12th 2008

Remixed and Reimagined

admin — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:36:00 +0000

By Billie Holiday

Legacy

Billie Holiday has been lauded along with Joni Mitchell, Judy Garland, and Aretha Franklin as one of the greatest female artists of the 20th Century. The appeal of Holiday was her pained and pinched vocals; she did not have a pretty voice, and the biggest part of her appeal laid in the rough edges of her whiskey-sour pipes.

Because one listens to Billie Holiday for emotional truth, it is a little disconcerting to think of Billie Holiday dance music. One needn’t worry, this album is not the kitschy mess of Ethel Merman’s disco record, nor is it a queerly camp album - like Liza Minnelli’s dance album with the Pet Shop Boys. Instead, the album is a collection of ultra-cool remixes of Holiday classics.

If listeners have a hard time imagining Holiday’s earthy vocals couched in plush dance music, they’d be right; logic would dictate that an artist as gritty and real as Holiday would not fare well in a soundscape of synthesizers. The remixes that work best are not the ones that try to reinvent Billie Holiday as a dance diva, but the ones that attempt to reinterpret her tunes. While Tony Humphries’ vision of “But Beautiful” is sonically awesome, Holiday’s singing suffers in the dub-treatment. Better songs are “Summertime” and “He Ain’t Got Rhythm” that pull off the difficult task of placing Billie Holiday on the dance floor without making it a mess. For the most part the album works because the music covered is the rawer kind that finds itself in the headphones of urbane hipsters.

Written by: Peter Piatkowski, August 29th 2007

Remixes Compiled

admin — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:00:00 +0000

By Telefon Tel Aviv

Hefty Records

Ever since their first LP, Farenheight Fair Enough, I have enjoyed the graceful marriage of technology and music of the Chicago-based duo, Telefon Tel Aviv. They are described as producing “ambient techno” music. Regardless of categorization, Telefon Tel Aviv continues to be soulful and inventive.

Put out by Hefty Records, their newest release, Remixes Compiled is an exciting collection of remixes from the past seven years. Organized chronologically, the album exhibits development from beginning to end. The opening tracks showcase technical soundscapes and while intelligently remixed with some of Telefon Tel Aviv’s signature sounds, in this reviewer’s opinion the later tracks are more thoughtful. The later tracks exhibit more seamless blending techniques that create truly beautiful remixes, like that of Slicker’s “Knock Me Down Girl,” the final track on the album and my hands-down favorite.

Remixes Compiled passed the “friend-riding-shotgun” test. When riding with someone who has different tastes in music, I popped in this album to see what would happen. What they heard of the album garnered the enthusiastic comment, “Hey! This is really good!” and the follow up question, “Where can I find this?” Never failing to pique interest, it passed with flying colors. In terms of songs and genres, this is an eclectic mix with something for everyone. Nine Inch Nails and Bebel Gilberto are under the same roof, just to give an example. Be you a newcomer or a long-time listener, this album illustrates some of the best that Telefon Tel Aviv has to offer.

Written by: Lillian B., June 13th 2007

Fabriclive.33

admin — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 23:11:00 +0000

By Spank Rock

Fabric Records

Plenty of famous (and not so famous) DJs have contributed to the FabricLive series: James Lavelle, Jacques Lu Cont, Diplo and even the late John Peel. So Baltimore “dirty rap” superstars Spank Rock had a lot to live up to with their mix, the thirty-third in the series. And while other albums may have been better mixed, or contain more unknown tracks, there is almost no competition when it comes to plain old danceability.

Spank Rock are, by their own admission, all about the debauchery that comes with partying, so they know what they’re doing with a mix CD. The bring ultra-hip new electro and rap together with some of their own remixes and idols to make something really fresh. From more straightforward tracks like Daft Punk’s “Technologic” and Miss Kittin & The Hacker’s “Stock Exchange” to more oddball picks like Yes’ “Owner of a Lonely Heart” (you read that right) to some of their own remixes of bands like Best Fwends and Brazilian bangers Cansei de ser Sexy and Bonde Do Role, this album is pretty much a party in a cardboard sleeve. So if you’re looking for a dance mix that’s less Euro-house and more debaucherous and nasty (in the best way possible), check out Spank Rock’s FabricLive effort. It’ll make your booty shake, or you don’t have a pulse.

Written by: Dana Reinoos, June 2nd 2007

Perceptions of Pacha

admin — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 02:41:00 +0000

By Kiko Navarro

Swank Recordings

The most important thing to DJ Kiko Navarro is that “people must never stop dancing!” Although I’m not a consistent fan of house, and perfer hip hop when I feel the need to get down, Perceptions of Pacha definitely moved me.

Kiko Navarro is a producer and remixer who started working as a DJ in 1990 in Mallorca, Spain and released his first CD compilation titled The Latin Sound of Pacha in a collaboration with Tommy Boy UK and Pacha Group in 2001. He plays venues all over Europe and has a solid history of making great music in Spain, the UK, the U.S. and Japan. Perceptions of Pacha is his 2007 release with thirteen tracks of musical fun stemming out of his longtime residency at Club Pacha in Ibiza. Navarro’s Perceptions can be listened to online at Ibiza Global Radio every Saturday.

Perceptions of Pacha samples different musical styles and soulful vocals into this seamless album, where moments of funk, slices of neo-soul, raw percussion and beautiful instrumentals live next door to synthsized intros, a vocal scat session and horn solo, a piano/violin duet, a short hip hop-esque flow and references to disco and jazz. I loved his mix of piano and afro-cuban beats in “Ache pa Ti" and fell head over heels for "More," a soulful groove with soaring vocals and lovely lyrics. Next time I have a dinner party that wants to become a dance party, Perceptions of Pacha is on the decks!

Written by: Jessmaya Morales, May 31st 2007

Poor Aim: Love Songs

admin — Sat, 12 May 2007 12:46:00 +0000

By The Blow

K Records

I got agitated with the first song on this album. Might be the mood I am in – I just didn't feel like hearing the lyrics, "I waited for days. I can't believe you didn't call me." This song is called "Hey Boy." I had heard of this music before, and I am a fan of K Records, but I wasn't into this. There are a lot of remixes here of songs that didn't interest me much in the first place. Insipid lyrics and electronic blips are the bulk of this. I did enjoy the song "Hock It," maybe because it had what I considered to be a healthy dose of bitterness and aggression. Could be that this just tells you where I'm at. There is one remix that has stringed instruments that I enjoyed also. The song asking where all her friends are is just tiresome.

Written by: Katy Otto, May 12th 2007

Franchise Player 01

admin — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:47:00 +0000

By JT Donaldson

Dance music, by definition, is meant for dance floors, but it would be mistake to assume that dance artists are lazy or unskilled. JT Donaldson is known as an important house music producer and remixer who not only creates music that is enjoyable to dance to, but also is compelling and aesthetically intriguing. The work of dance music producers often is undervalued because they are lumped in with disposable genres, like disco or dance-pop, but Donaldson deserves the acclaim he’s garnered for his work. Like luminaries such as Junior Vasquez, Frankie Knuckles and DJ Irene, Donaldson has amassed an impressive oeuvre of intelligent and original dance music.

Franchise Player 01 is an excellent collection of seemingly conflicting and clashing sounds that manage to mesh, united under the thumping bass of the tracks. Those expecting wailing divas will be sorely disappointed, as this collection of dance music is definitely more underground than the radio-friendly mixes of Deborah Cox or Kim English. This music is more akin to Massive Attack or Fatboy Slim. The opening track is a Yoruba Soul remix of UK artist Ben Westbeech’s “So Good Today.” The song expertly blends Westbeech’s soul-inflected vocals (think a more credible Justin Timberlake) with gurgling synths. Rhythm & Sound’s “Freedom for All (Soundstream Remix)” is reminiscent of the more mainstream drum ‘n bass outfit Faithless, with its understated, muted vocals. The most accessible and closest pop song on the radio is the head rush of a club stomper, “Space Cadillac (Derrick Carter Club Vocal),” which uses the sexual double entendre imagery of a car similar to Grace Jones’ dance staple “Pull Up to the Bumper.” The vocals are more energetic than most of the other songs on the record.

The album closes with a trio of songs credited to Donaldson. “Just Bounce” starts off with a classy, jazz introduction before the sounds melt into a thumping dance beat with voices chanting over the drums, telling the listeners to “just bounce,” while horns accent the song. “Stop,” a collaboration with Fred Everything is a rushing club number, appropriate for catwalks with its stately and strident beat and chiming keyboard and samples of voices. The album closes with “Gone,” a song credited to Donaldson and Four Feet; it is a high energy throw down that’s sprinkled with snare drums, squealing synths and disembodied voices droning in sampled snatches.

Written by: Peter Piatkowski, March 27th 2007