Saturday, July 30, 2011

#10: Swoon - The Chemical Brothers

A word about remixes. A lot of people don't like them because they wreck all that is good and holy about the original (if the original was good, or holy for that matter). Still more say that the remixers have absolutely no creativity and pretty much steal the idea from the original. Nothing could be further from the truth. A remix is the vision of two different artists meshed together to create something different altogether. Maybe the artists have similar tastes, maybe they don't. Either way, it's refreshing to see something a little bit different to the same sort of crap that some artists chuck out. And speaking of crap, here is our case in point (which is anything BUT crap):

The original version of Swoon by the Chemical Brothers. Quick review: it's a pretty epic song. There. Easy. The only thing easier would be reviewing Angger Dimas' stuff: with a few exceptions, most of his songs can be described with four-letter words. But anyway. Below is the Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas remix:
Here is the Boys Noize "Summer" remix:
And finally, this is the Don Diablo remix:

Hopefully you can see the obvious and not-so-obvious differences between the four tracks. My humble (I swear!) opinion is that the Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas remix is a little more average than the original, while the Boys Noize remix is stellar. The Don Diablo remix is a little more akin to the original than the others - in fact, it sounds very much like a broken version of the original. Each one has its pros and cons and each and every single one is a good song. As I said before, they're hybrids of the creative geniuses of the Chemical Brothers and the songs' respective remixers. Note that I'm admittedly biased towards Boys Noize (because Boys Noize kick arse).

I'll start with the Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas remix. Compared to the others (and the original), it has more of a Flight Facilities-esque chilled electro house beat to it. One could be forgiven initially for thinking that the original was an acoustic track and that Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas just chucked an electro beat behind it, stirred it up, and let it loose. Clearly that's not the case. It's much like chilled - almost deep - house of yesteryear than the electric guitar hit that the original is. Mind, that's like comparing apples (the original) to orange juice with ice and a fancy glass and those cute little umbrellas you get in cocktails, served freshly squeezed on a beach in Hawaii during a cloudless 28°C (~82°F) sunset (the remix). I love orange juice. Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas have taken the song down a couple of notches, but since "down" is "downtempo" rather than "negative" I'd say they did a pretty good job, but overall I rate the song NSFP (not suitable for parties).

And now I get to rip the Boys Noize remix to shreds. The problem is... I can't actually sink my claws into it. The song is an amazing standalone song, and if I didn't know it was a remix I wouldn't believe it if you told me, even if you were strapped to a lie detector. The only real complaint I've heard comes from a friend, who reckons the buildup at the start is a little more, erm, unimpressive. That said, it redeems itself (he continued) by building it up to something a little more epic. Boys Noize didn't wreck the song (he continued further) - they built their own magic on to an already amazing song. To that statement (my turn, finally), I completely agree. Having heard the remix before the original, however, as I said I'm somewhat biased towards the Boys Noize remix. Having said that, it's very hard for me to imagine anything better than the end of this song to end an album. Bliss.

Finally, the Don Diablo remix. I confess I know very little about Don Diablo and I knew even less about the remix before I wrote this post (I've actually written this over a span of six days, thanks largely to lack of sleep and fucking uni schedules) but I found it when I was searching YouTube for the other three videos. Originally it sounds like a damaged version of the original, but oh my various gods1 does it redeem itself beautifully. It seems to have been created as less of a party song and more of an energiser (a pre-song to go with the pre-drinks, if you will) but, again, I'd personally use it as a night-ender rather than a night-starter. Either way, I can't pick a style of house for this song. It seems to be a mishmash of three or four different styles - it starts out as almost grungy house (think LMFAO) but it develops into... what? Something. Something that pleases my aural canal. (If that's even a technical phrase.) I would play this over and over if I was a DJ. But I'm not, so I'll settle for casual listening, because unfortunately I can't see this remix becoming a sound of Melbourne any time soon.

Sing with me! Just remember to fall in love, there's nothing else...

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