Dilla disciple Mecca:83 has been everywhere at once as of late. D A Y B R E A K, an album crafted in 24 hours (?!) provided me with some seriously soulful vibes last week, and his recent collabo with Somepling has been on loop since it dropped. Here we get another look at D A Y B R E A K highlight “Aura”, this time with an smooth vocals from alt-rap crooner Bobby Blunt. The result is all languid grooves and a great soundtrack to start or end your day.
If you’re not familiar with Aether, all I have to say is this (you’re welcome). Despite being out of the public eye (or at least out of my line of sight) for a few years, it seems unlikely to me that Diego Chavez has been stagnating. Maybe he’s been working under other musical aliases (he’s got at least one I know about) or focusing on his work in visual design. Whatever the case may be, I hope these recent remixes are him letting on about a comeback as Aether. This woozy little Portishead mix is heady and vaguely danceable, but most importantly it hints at an intent to re-enter into a realm that’s evolved a lot since Artifacts. My guess is he’ll feel right at home again.
How do even aspire to improve on Black Sands? In terms of quality, you don’t. Judging by the tracklisting and the guest remixers (plus a couple of other tracks floating around), Remixed plans instead to expand the classic’s scope, remaking it as an all-encompassing tempo whore. No complaints here. What better way to kickstart such a campaign than to have the impeccable Machinedrum lead off and kick peeps right in the juke-box. I Don’t think this is even the full track, but those 20 seconds around 1:40 are all that’s needed to know that this joint is destined to be looming over dance floors for the remainder of 2012.
HEY!
I know the above track isn’t new, but the dude HeRobust has been on a bit of a mission in the last few days, recruiting followers via Facebook and Twitter, posting remixes (such as the above) to his bandcamp and warning of new material. I feel it’s important to point something out: HeRobust is the shit. Rooted in down-tempo hip hop, his sound carries an unmistakably signature style involving constantly unraveling percussion and scattering high-frequency synths. As a blogger it’s normally requisite that I describe his sound by comparison, but you really need to hear it to believe it. He’s spawned a few of my favorite things in the last year as well, both directly and indirectly:
His debut Albumin EP is one of the most original works that the North American beat scene has yet to produce.
The unofficial video for “Snail Gate” from the aforementioned EP can also be filed under “see to believe”. Vintage stock footage spliced together so carefully that it never misses a beat. Visual retro amazingness overload. Keep an eye out for SlurpTV. Given the rising popularity of collage art and the “old is new” culture we could be seeing big things afoot for them.
And, the reigning king of the remix, Star Slinger (foreshadow) pieced together this little number and lovingly patches in Henry Rollins’ infamous rant against DJs and their lack of musicianship.
Another day, another sweet 90′s revivalist anthem. This nod should not be a surprise to anyone familiar with Balam Acab‘s music, which is often smeared with drifting vocal samples in similar inflections as this. Some of the remixes released this last week have me considering an entire part of the site devoted to 90′s revival jams. Seriously. Balam Acab’s new album Wander / Wonder drops August 29th.
Wedidit continues it’s barrage of remixes with eLan‘s retake of Brandy’s “I Wanna Be Down”. It’s reassuring that I’m not the only person still nostalgic on cornball 90′s RnB, complete with more denim shirts and jackets than you can shake your beret at. Thanks to the video sync, you can relive your living room dance parties, only this time with gurgling bass and nowhere near as much innocence. This one’s a heater, folks.
3 classic LP’s and a sprawling body of surrounding work should be enough, but if you need another reason why Flying Lotus is the godfather of this beat shit then here it is: his throwaways and premixes are better than anything you or your favorite producer has ever done. In a recent stint in philanthropy, Flylo has been feeding his horde with freebies on his soundcloud. Last month we heard a hypnotically beautiful Massive Attack remix amongst a mixed bag of odds and ends which, had they been completed and compiled, could have made an interesting EP. Over the last 24 hours he’s uploaded another batch which is significantly greater than the last in both scope and quality. The instrumental for King Midas Sound’s “Lost Remix” could easily have made it onto Cosmogramma and an unreleased(?) Burial callabo (minus the Burial) takes William Bevan’s percolating 2-step rhythms and cavernous vocals and launches them into hyperspace with Lo’s patented lurch-bass and lazer beams. Praise this man.
I’m not trying to show any favoritism here, this being the second Shlohmo joint posted in a week, but his album drops shortly and dude is clearly vying for your attention. This remix is downright sexy and rather than dissect it I’ll let Shlohmo fill you in:
“…i forgot i had this drake remix lyin around. this is seriously one of my fav songs of the year, if not ever. if youre one of those people that hates on pop music because you wear a backpack or smthing then plz chill out. try and appreciate shit even if u have to forget the context sometimes. good music is good music and u don’t have to front and pretend it’s below ur intellectual level. can u feel me? much <3 guys. even if u wear backpacks like me “
Most Burial remixes are met with mixed reactions upon reaching the web. Some are accommodating enough while others, well, not so much. I’ve seen death threats uttered via comment thread at the dude Phaseone for this beauty. Personally, I don’t quite understand the contempt. With Burial’s Andre Young-like output, you’d think that the hordes of his hyper-diverse minions would rejoice in some new music regardless. That’s the thing with Burial – his music is so steeped in emotion that it creates unique reactions based on interpretation and becomes linked to other experiences in that same vein of feeling. Fucking with songs like these could mean deharmonizing something inside someone that they wanted to keep for themselves, and that could elicit some negative reactions. I don’t see any such reactions stemming from this remix. Shlohmo is no slouch when it comes to conveying feeling in his own music, and my guess is he had a little place in his heart for the outro to “Shell Of Light”. He allows Burial’s sense of space to dominate the track, with sparse 808 crackle and fluttering vocals stewing in a pot with some low-bit synth tones. The result is to date the best reinterpretation I’ve heard of anything from Untrue, and should hopefully evoke positive reactions from even the most stilted of fans.
Shlohmo drops his debut LP, Bad Vibes, on August 9th.
If you visit Nosaj Thing’s website, all that you will find on the homepage is his name and a line of text stating “currently recording new album”. If you’re familiar with Drift and his small body of surrounding work, this will most likely be exciting to you, and an out-of-left-field remix of a left field band could lead to the assumption that he’s beginning to build steam towards the release. Jason Chung’s remix portfolio boasts some interesting and diverse names: from the obligatory (Flying Lotus, Drake) to the trendy (Radiohead, the XX) to the challenging (Charlotte Gainsbourg, Boris). Unlike many of his peers, his approach always leaves recognizable fragments intact to keep the artists’ work audible as he plays lasertag around it, and this is certainly no exception. The vocals are left almost untouched and atmosphere is built around them, piece by stuttering piece. This is definitely one of the more restrained edits I’ve heard from the man and fits nicely into his distinctive catalog.
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