Listening • The State of Mashmixes and Remashes

About a decade ago it became common to say about new movies that were good, but not that good: “I’ll wait for it to come out on DVD.” If they were that good, it’d be worth it to deal with the inability to lay in front of the screen in your underwear and press the pause button for bathroom breaks.

Now the “I’ll wait for it” phenomenon has carried over to music: “I’ll wait for the remix.” So accustomed are we to checking out mashups and mixes mere weeks after the original is leaked, we’ve now formed an ear for the almost-hot.

Unfortunately, I’ve yet to hear anyone breathe life into Britney’s “Gimme More,” but there are some standout remixes that make the originals look, well, bothersome. Among them is a remix of a mashup, which would be what? A mashmix? A remash? Whatever the case, A-Trak helps blend the somewhat awkward melding of Kanye West and Daft Punk on “Stronger” by speeding things up and bringing blips and claps to the fore. Of course, with every remix comes at least one sacrifice. For A-Trak, it was losing the winning couplet: “Heard they’d do anything for a Klondike / Well I’d do anything for a blond dyke.”

» Listen to “Stronger (A-Trak remix)” at Bows + Arrows


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Then there are remixes that enhance songs that were always great. Erlend Oye’s “Sudden Rush” came out when he was still “that guy with glasses from Kings of Convenience.” Now that he’s an indie-electro icon of sorts, it’s appropriate that the Twelves have revived it with more clubby backing.

» Listen to “Sudden Rush (the Twelves Remix)” at Palms Out Sounds


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Like most nerds born in the early ‘80s, my bespectacled heart melts when I hear music that resembles a Nintendo theme song. The catch is that it has to transform into something of substance eventually. Straight-up 8-bit does not impress.

So I was thrilled to hear Le Loup pour a delicious batter of breathy, hand-clapping folk into the mold of a standard geekno song, resulting in a warm and energizing pop tart. Recommended pairings: Sundays, subways, sex.

» Listen to “We are Gods! We are Wolves!” at Stereogum


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If it were a video game, Múm’s “They Made Frogs Smoke Til They Exploded” would probably involve a race to do exactly that. Few titles could more aptly describe the sound of a chipper children’s chorus singing gibberish on top of happy, glitchy loops.

» Listen to “They Made Frogs Smoke Til They Exploded” at Tunes Consumed

Or just watch the video.



 —Heather Rasley, Oct. 3, 2007

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