It\u2019s in our character to fuss with our creations, I don\u2019t believe human nature is ever satisfied. Admit it, do you ever stay on one TV station? No, you always want to see what the others have to offer.<\/p>\n
In music, this constant state of reinvention occurs through the remix, a subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) sprucing of an original, which can prove inspiring, or frustrating, depending on the material. I\u2019m not usually one for remixes, though I point to Depeche Mode as a band who mastered the art \u2014 I\u2019ve listened to a various versions of \u201cStrangelove\u201d and adored them all.<\/p>\n
Alt-J (or ? for Mac-o-files in our midst) is a band built for remixes, seeing as its tracks from the 2012 An Awesome Wave inhabit a level of playful exploration. With Summer Remix EP, various artists sought to find new territory for four of the foursome\u2019s tracks, but somewhere between the originals and remix city they mostly got lost.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not because of song choice \u2014 \u201cFitzpleasure,\u201d \u201cMs,\u201d \u201cDissolve Me\u201d and the sterling \u201cTessellate\u201d all came with steady credentials. But the problem in remixing them lies in my main issue with Alt-J\u2019s music: There\u2019s already so much going on that to remix them makes them either more complicated (which is unwise) or too simple (which is intriguing). The simple button was pushed. It was chosen poorly.<\/p>\n
Take \u201cFitzpleasure,\u201d which on this EP is remixed three times. What makes the original bounce is its ebb and flow, punctuated by Joe Newman\u2019s odd vocal stylings. But only the remix from My Morning Jacket\u2019s Jim James shows the power of the original, as he revs the pace with a racing electronic beat, stopping it at intervals to highlight the song\u2019s pauses. Meanwhile the Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio) and The Internet of Odd Future versions ring flat, falling on typical electronica cliches passing as innovation. The Internet\u2019s take rips straight from Thievery Corporation\u2019s playbook, a duo that would have done this song justice.<\/p>\n
Mumford & Sons\u2019 Ben Lovett attempts to refurbish \u201cDissolve Me,\u201d and he fails, which is no surprise since he\u2019s in Mumford & Sons, a band who (and here I use Henry Rollins\u2019 rant against U2) \u201ceveryone kisses their ass and it\u2019s the biggest pile of shyte I have ever heard in my entire life.\u201d Lovett shortens the song, adds echo and strings, and guts the emotional howls in the original\u2019s denouement. I\u2019m sure Lovett didn\u2019t have time, though, it can be hard work ripping off The Avett Brothers.<\/p>\n
Ben de Vries has the difficult task of reworking \u201cTessellate,\u201d and he mostly succeeds, adding fervor and layers to a song sparse and somewhat cold. Perhaps the least known of group, de Vries matches James\u2019 ability to give the remake a different stamp.<\/p>\n
Ideas that sound good and sound ideas are not always equivalent, as Summer Remix shows. A project to bear new musical fruit proves a fruitless venture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s in our character to fuss with our creations, I don\u2019t believe human nature is ever satisfied. Admit it, do you ever stay on one TV station? No, you always want to see what the others have to offer. In music, this constant state of reinvention occurs through the remix, a subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-1168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-alt-j"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1170,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168\/revisions\/1170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}