…And you got your instrumental in my acappella! Let’s see how it tastes!
This month’s Selection proved to be problematic for me, but only in an “embarrassment of riches” kind of way. For you see, I kinda collect remixes. A large portion of my large collection of music consists of hip-hop and techno, two genres that really must support more remixes than every other genre combined. This is basically because they’re the easiest to remix; hip-hop acappellas can easily be thrown over just about any other music without worrying about key or pitch, and techno remixes often are just completely new compositions that happen to feature one small theme or motif from the original. I just finished a remix project for a friend of mine in which all I kept were some samples of the acappella, building a completely new piece of music around those vocal notes (and an Amy MacDonald sample, but shhhh don’t tell anyone). Anyway, wading through all the remixes I wanted to put on this mix, I think I finally managed to whittle it down to about an hour’s worth of music. Sigh… So here’s 25 minutes of that. I tried to keep the more interesting ones.
Going in, Sam and I discussed the phenomenon of remixes that completely supplant their source material, either through a quantum leap in quality or just an unforseen boost of popularity. Perhaps the most famous of all these is Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound Of Silence”, which gave them a whole second career once it hit the airwaves with added drums and effects. There are a few other remixes I know well and I don’t think I’ve ever heard the original - The Charlatans (UK)’s song “Patrol” is included on their greatest hits as a Chemical Brothers remix. Do I ever need to hear the original? Doubtful. The entirety of “The Grey Album” is more pleasantly listenable to me than “The Black Album”. Depeche Mode’s “I Feel You” single had a boisterous “Babylon Mix” that took a ponderous twangy “hey look Dave, I found a guitar!” dirge and turned it into a peppy dance number. You know, the kind of music Depeche Mode used to do anyway. The vinyl 12″ remixes for both A Tribe Called Quest’s “I Left My Wallet In El Segundo” and De La Soul’s “Say No Go” are vastly superior in their musical use of samples and arrangement. Speaking from personal experience, I know that sometimes a producer can have a lot of fun and throw a bit more effort onto a remix, because the arrangement is already set, the vocals are already there, waiting to be complimented.
Anyway, I’m babbling as usual. Onto the re: Mix
1. Suzanne Vega, “Tom’s Diner (DNA remix)”
Another well-known example of the remix completely obliterating the original, this was just a little acappella ditty at the end of Vega’s album, and she only did the “dun-dun-duh-duh” scat once! Enter remixers DNA, graciously accepting the sound that Soul II Soul had laid before the world, with wondrous results. You all know this. I’m betting none of you have heard the original.
2. Duncan Sheik, “Reasons For Living (Vicious Groove-A-Pella)”
Uh… WHAT??? My friend Jenn showed this to me a bunch of years ago. Both she and I are fans of Mr. Sheik, but she was a bit more completist about getting singles and such. So suddenly this turns up one day, a CD maxi-single consisting of different techno / trance remixes of the Sheik song. Most are a bit cheesy and obvious, and this one hardly pushes any genre envelopes. But I like the string chord progression, and I cut-and-pasted a few things to make it a bit more interesting. It’s a bit bizarre considering Sheik’s body of work, but there’s plenty of room for the fun and unexpected in the remix world.
3. Christina Aguilera, “Hurt (JP & BSOD Electro mix)”
I personally really like the original of this song, as well as another more straight-ahead disco-house remix. But this one really tears apart the acappella and strings it out over a thumping beat and fat analog synths. And it also does something that I’d heard once before on the mash-up of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You’ve Been Gone” and American Analog Set’s “Hard To Find” - the whole feel of the song is changed by excluding the chorus! Instead merely the last line is stretched and repeated, emphasizing the point of hurting one’s own self.
4. Black Sheep, “The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)”
Another great example of the remix trumping the original, this became emblematic of the fun intelligent clever Native Tongues sound we were hearing in the early 90s from De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest, Leaders Of The New School, Brand Nubian, Main Source, Del, UMCs, etc. This song however got insanely popular when the video for this remix hit Yo MTV Raps, featuring Mista Lawnge scratching laserdiscs and Dres grabbing the image you are watching on the screen and crumpling it up and throwing it away. It’s also, in my opinion, one of the best rap songs ever recorded.
5. Imogen Heap, “Hide And Seek (Tiesto’s In Search Of Sunrise remix)”
This was kind of inevitable. When I first heard this acappella & vocoder song on Heap’s album, I fell in love immediately but also knew in the back of my head that this would work really well with a beat behind it. Some sort of… “remix”. I noodled with the idea of doing it myself, but who am I to argue with the master - Tiesto, a veritable posterboy for the modern techno DJ / producer. This is pretty much what you’d expect, and is no replacement for the original, but I think it’s a lot of fun.
Download: Suzanne Vega, “Tom’s Diner (DNA remix)” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)
Download: Duncan Sheik, “Reasons For Living (Vicious Groove-A-Pella)” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)
Download: Christina Aguilera, “Hurt (JP & BSOD Electro mix)” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)
Download: Black Sheep, “The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)
Download: Imogen Heap, “Hide And Seek (Tiesto’s In Search Of Sunrise remix)” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)