Remixes are going crazy lately. I know that musicians and DJs have been remixing songs for years and years and years, but they seem to be exploding lately more than ever. I have heard some of the best ones in the past few months alone. Two of my favorites come from Justice and The Teenagers.
I have heard Justice being called "the new Daft Punk" a couple of times, and I'm going to have to agree with everyone here. I first heard their remix of Simian's We Are Your Friends at parties not too long ago (even though it's nearly four years old), and it's one of the most catchy songs I've heard in a while. Their full length album - † - was just released and is 48 minutes of pure energy. You can cancel your gym membership if you get your hands on a copy of this thing. You won't be able to sit still, promise. Here is their video for D.A.N.C.E., which Heron posted on House of Naked and is being passed around like wild fire.
I really started writing this entry to talk about The Teenagers, though. They are three French guys who are in London right now, and their music falls into the dreamy, drugged out lo-fi slide pop genre (I made that up but if you listen to it you'll know what I mean). Guardian Unlimited wrote a fantastic piece on them, explained better than I ever could.
But what I'm really in love with is The Teenagers' remixes. One of my favorite songs for the past few months is their remix of Au Revoir Simone's Fallen Snow (fourth track on the MySpace player). I didn't realize this until recently, but if you listen to the original, it's completely different. It was then that I realized how brilliant these three guys are. While their own music sounds a little like the soundtrack to a sleepy Terry Richardson shoot (which is also fantastic and you should listen to that as well), it's their remixes that has me falling in love with them more and more with each listen.
I think the remix culture has started to a grow a bit, but unfortunately there are too many bad remixes (and/or remix-ers) out there who give the whole "field" a bad name, especially if their remixes get them into trouble with the labels ("stealing", they call it). Thankfully, there is a lot of good music out there that isn't signed to some self-serving label (actually, must good music is), giving remix-ers some nice options.
ReplyDeleteStill, I'd prefer seeing the DJ scene move more towards original materials, which has been occuring for a while now. In my opinion, this is where DJ's show what they can do (digging up good samples, composing them well, mixing different musical styles). Remixes are a cool, especially if they bring to light lesser-known musicians, but composing from samples (jazz, blues, whatever you like) and some (or a lot) of your own material allows the artist a lot more creativity.
Either way, whether doing an "official remix" or taking the sampling/composing route, DJ's always do interesting things, and very often at the fringe of the music scene. I can't count how many new artists I've learned of through my favorite DJ's, usually on collaborative projects.
I agree with the fact that we need more new music and less remixes. But I have this notion that music needs to be more interactive. This was spurred on from seeing video game sales take over music world wide. Record labels across all genres have to figure out how to make money from everyone remixing or using their content in the way they want to.
ReplyDeleteLove your tracks Jo. For this there is pretty much only two labels you want to look at Modular and edbanger records. First is aussie second is french. But they have a good range of great acts from all over