Urlaubshits

Things have been a bit quiet on the blog lately - for this I apologise, but the last few months have been quite busy for me as a real person and most of the time I’ve had to relax has been spent doing just that. It’s actually been quite nice, having a bit of time to refresh - I remember Ewan Pearson writing once that DJs/producers/music writers should take at least three months a year off from music to go do something else, so that’s what I’ve done, and it’s left me eager to get writing and listening again. So, in order to rectify this somewhat, as well as this month’s mix, I’ll do two mixes in December: one normal mix of recent/new things, and another “Best of 2009″ mix. This month’s mix however, is a collection of remixes, either remixes of pop songs, or remixes of songs made pop, stuff from the last 3 months or so that I’ve really enjoyed.

Download:> Urlaubshits Radio - November ‘09 (128kb, 59mb, 1:03:18)

1) LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 (Prince Language Remix) // DFA Records
I’m not going to bother doing any of that “Best of the Decade” nonsense, because for anyone other than Pitchfork to do it seems a bit stupid, and when Pitchfork do it, it ends up being crass, but if I did, then 45:33 would probably figure highly on that list. The opening number, here beautifully reworked by Prince Language, adds a rippling arpeggio and some synth pads that make the track sound even more like the breaking of dawn than the original.

2) Simian Mobile Disco - Cruel Intentions (Maurice Fulton Remix) // Wichita Recordings
Simian Mobile Disco’s sophmore album didn’t even remotely live up to their debut, or even the blinding “Synthesise” from the beginning of the year. The big name vocalists were not enough to salvage what was a sloppy collection of half baked electro-pop, mixed with a few housier efforts, which, although sounding like their old material, simply rubbed up against the rest in a way which made them sound just as lazy. The one track that everyone seems to rave about though, is the obligatory disco-influenced “Cruel Intentions”, made remarkable only by the vocals of The Gossip’s Beth Ditto. For all the internet chatter of her diva vocals making this track into a classic, it never seemed to me to be anything more than merely serviceable. This Maurice Fulton remix however, is a totally different beast. He doesn’t do anything that drastic to it - the key melody is more or less the same, but the vocals in his version just fly, maxing them out to their fullest potential, achieved by just the slightest change in the chord progression. If you like this, then I’d urge you to track down his masterful remix of Hot Chip’s “Over & Over”; another remix which makes a classic song all his own.

3) Yacht - Psychic City (Classixx Remix) // DFA Records
Classixx sound like summer in a can. Along with Mighty Mouse they are the first wave of genuine contenders to Aeroplane’s balearic pop throne. Even better than their Phoenix remix from earlier in the year (which was the musical equivalent of golden syrup dripping off a spoon), with its low slung bassline, and tropical feel, this remix sounds like Tom Tom Club, which is no mean feat.

4) Au Revoir Simone (Neon Indian Remix) // Moshi Moshi Records
It remains to be seen whether “hypnagogic pop” as it has been described by The Wire, will turn out to be the most significant genre classification since dubstep, or if it will be consumed into the greater whole like nu-balearic, but there is no doubt in my mind that this burgeoning movement has created some of the most exciting and melancholic music that I have heard in the last year. For those who don’t know, hypnagogic pop is lo-fi in its production values, supposedly occupying a dreamspace somewhere between the stations on the AM radio dial. Songs borrow the synthetic elements of 80s pop, but, perhaps as a reaction against the current wave of hyper-produced neon alt-pop and electro, they add woozy, fuzzed out layers of shoegaze sound, creating an effect that is akin to hearing songs as half remembered from childhood. What this remix by Neon Indian demonstrates, is that placed between two more “conservative” remixes, there is actually very little in terms of instrumentation to differentiate them - the tropical feel of the Classixx remix blends quite nicely with the fluorescent quality of the wobbly melody of Neon Indian’s remix, and the driving arpeggio is very much in the vein of a lot of current Italo style remixes, (and indeed leads quite nicely into the Rex the Dog remix of Fever Ray) but the flange adds a weird layer of something just out of reach.

5) Fever Ray - Triangle Walks (Rex the Dog Remix) // Rabid Records
Several years ago (2004 to be precise), Rex the Dog released a track called “Prototype” on Kompakt, which was perhaps as far removed from that label’s minimal style as you could imagine. It prefigured most of the maximal dance music trends which followed it, and did them better (and with it’s thick arpeggiated bassline, probably the current Italo revival as well), but perhaps because it took so long to follow it up in any reasonable way, Rex the Dog never quite reached the same heights as Boys Noize, Justice et al. But one thing he did do, was a great remix of The Knife’s “Heartbeats”. This remix of Fever Ray’s “Triangle Walks” is much in the same vein. In fact, it surpasses it - a major feat considering “Heartbeats” pop prowess; in this remix Rex the Dog manages to completely transform Triangle Walks from a downbeat calypso ballad into a blistering electro-house banger, by simply speeding the track up a bit. In the hands of his immediate peers, the same technique would have probably yielded an absolute trainwreck, but five years on, Rex still has that touch of emotional intelligence which made “Prototype” so brilliant.

6) Metronomy - Do The Right Thing (Wild Geese Remix) // Because Music
There’s nothing particulalrly subtle about this remix of Metronomy by Wild Geese, but it just pushes all the right buttons: the right mix of italo and big-room house, thumping bassline, a proper “hands in the air” moment, complete with organ, and a build-up which will surely get even the most sluggish of dancefloors moving. A further sign that “house” is surely the direction things are heading.

7) Lindstrom and Christabelle - Baby Can’t Stop (Aeroplane Remix) // Feedelity Recordings
This is the first single from the forthcoming Lindstrom and Christabelle (formerly Solale) album which is coming out early next year. I’ve been a little disappointed by Aeroplane’s remixes of late - their Robbie Williams remix felt very much by the numbers, and their remix of Au Revoir Simone was nowhere near as good as the Neon Indian remix. But this is one of their best, featuring an awesome arpeggio build-up and wonky organ solo. Let’s hope that their slight quality control issue is down to the amount of time they’re putting into their debut album.

8) Detachments - Circles (Beg To Differ Dub) // Thisisnotanexit
One of several remixes from Detachments’ new single “Circles” (produced by Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford no less), Beg To Differ are a new production duo consisting of Nick Chacona and Roy Dank (a.k.a. Wurst’s My Cousin Roy). The remix has a really dark and sinister edge to it, along with a bassline which nicely mirrors the “Going round in circles” lyric by looping and building in intensity. All the other remixes across the two discs are of a similarly excellent quality, especially the disco-pop rework by Mighty Mouse.

9) Boris - Buzz In (Optimo Remix) // Scion Audio Visual
A few years ago Optimo released the excellent Walkabout mix, a meeting of industrial rhythms and organic textures. It featured “My Machine” by Japanese drone metal band Boris, which actually offered one of the more sedate moments of the mix, giving the listener a moment of respite from an onslaught of techno, and acts as a palate cleanser for the second half of the mix. Now Optimo have been given the chance to remix Boris, but unlike the use of their material in their Walkabout mix, there’s nothing reserved about it; the result is a joyous mixture of clashing guitars and multicoloured melodic noise, resembling the same kind of apocalyptic dawn chorus sound as Fuck Buttons’ recent album Tarot Sport, and ending in a beautiful shoegaze fuzz.

10) They Came From The Stars, I Saw Them - Rabbit Seal Monkey (King of Town Extra 1/4 Remix) // Thisisnotanexit
I really can’t praise King of Town highly enough. He has a gift at creating brilliant atmospherics which completely change the mood of the songs he remixes. It seems that he hasn’t been called on to remix anywhere near as many tracks as he should have been, and I feel this is something that needs to be rectified, because as this remix (and the one he did last year of TCFTSIST’s “Moon Song”) shows, he is something quite special indeed. This remix has an organic, almost folky quality to it; it is a marriage of delicate melody and searing analog synths which reframe TCFTSIST’s innocent tone as something altogether more brooding.

11) Florence + The Machine - You Got The Love (The xx Remix)
Remixing a cover of an absolute stone-cold classic is the kind of thing that could have a tendency to blow up right in your face, especially when there are so many people waiting for you to fail due to being massively over-hyped. Personally, I think the hype surrounding The xx is justified; they’ve created a beautiful album with a unique sound, taking elements of dubstep and working them into a pop form that is accessible and cerebral. As for Florence + The Machine, I’m slightly less sure the hype is justified, but she can sing. The original version of this track is the kind of thing you’d expect to see on the telly being used to add “emotion” to an episode of Hollyoaks or something similarly melodramatic, but this remix is a work of genius, using cut up vocals of Florence while The xx do the bulk of the singing. The sparse instrumentation, consisting only of bass, drum machine and a harp sample ensure that the sublime vocals are the centre of attention.