Tag: rework

Categories
Music

The XX – Reconsider (Exempt / Henry Greenwork Edit)

Remember me, I’m the one that’s back from over
Time’s gone by and I’m still so far from over
You reappeared like you had never been gone
I lose composure
You’re touching me like you have no desire for closure

Reconsider

Did you lie awake like I did
I stayed up ’til the stars didn’t recognise me
So long
I waited so long
Now you don’t see the skies that I do
My sun becomes your moon
For a familiar love
I am familiar love”

I am currently sitting in a dark hotel room on the outskirts of Delhi, India. The last familiar voice I heard was over a broken Skype call and the last familiar words I read were the lyrics to this song. The XX have a haunting way of capturing moments like that. The voice of the singer (Romy) is ghostlike, with these lyrics echoing the corridors in my head.

There is something about being stripped of your familiar place, familiar people to let you see what lonely is and even when you think it gone, it emerges in those dark rooms. Echoing in your head. It is arguably that ability to conjure those thoughts as to why the XX have such a cult following. Coming from the depths of England, they create the music pretty girls with their cigarettes dance around to in their panties, not sure if the words in those lyrics are cuts or a relief.

In this case, it is relief. We never want to feel alone. I think it is true we listen to lonely music to feel that less. I had a dream last night, the kind where you have to tell yourself in your dream it is not real. But the whole city feels like that. Waking up and seeing a new world, an alien planet. Sitting in a car today I was toted around the city visiting schools and temples I had only seen in travel books. Seeing people, cows in the streets, monkeys were swinging around the trees as we waited for the Prime Minister of India to pass so the roads would clear. The 100 degree Fahrenheit heat covering my well covered body. Alien places are always an experience as you have that “Inception” moment, where you, everything is normal, but then you notice something off and then you realise you are the only English voice you have heard in three days.

I like this place and this song on repeat in the room. It is the good lonely when the lyrics are a safe place and a familiar story. I think everyone should take a trip to an alien planet. I recommend India.

The XX – Reconsider (Exempt / Henry Green Rework)

Categories
Music Remixes

The Weeknd – Wicked Games (Mendez Rework)

Wicked Games is probably one of my favorite songs of all-time, let alone, by The Weeknd. A quality piece of music transports me to another place entirely — emotionally, mentally, and physically. Wicked Games brings you to a place of understanding, not necessarily because the lyrics are relative to our lives, but because the idea of the song is such a basic human problem and emotion. After seeing The Weeknd  two weekends ago in the Bronx, I admit that I was in awe of his performance but walked away feeling a little bit sad. Seeing him in front of the hundreds of fans, dancing and singing like a truly charmer, was beautiful. But his words and lyrics come from a real place, it seems, and there’s something about that which makes it hard to say, “I love the Weeknd because his music is sexy.” It is definitely sexy, but it’s also one man pouring his emotions onto a stage for all to judge and hear. And that’s easy to forget when we’re distracted by how the music + lyrical combo makes us feel.

I got my heart right here
I got my scars right here.”

I was taken by how simply the elements of this remix played into the original beauty allowing it to maintain with a little bit of moombah flare. It’s not overpowering by any means, as some moombahton tends to be. It’s more like upgrading from a two-step to a cha-cha-slide.

Mendez has done a couple of other remixes on his soundcloud, which I found to be rather impressive. It’s like someone told him to make slow tracks that people love into sexy dance-floor moombah lovers melts, and that is precisely what he’s done. He has a really mellow way of taking on a track. If you guys can’t tell, I am generally really wary of moombahton because of how similar it can sound. Trust me when I say this has some style to it, definitely worth playing at the next party.

The Weeknd – Wicked Games (Mendez Rework)

*BONUS*

The Weeknd – Rolling Stone (Mendez Moombahsoul Rework)

 

Categories
Remixes

Tina Turner – What’s Love Got To Do (Zimmer Rework)

Love’s got a sh*tload to do with it when it comes to pulling off a such a great remix of a song. It’s Zimmer’s ability to stay true to the original while injecting the right dose of echoed claps, deep bassline and that flute-like sound reminiscent of Met At Work’s famous Down Under that make up this accurately labeled rendition as a ‘rework’ rather than a ‘remix’.

I was only a year old when this song came out but it’s inevitable to have multiple memories of specific moments when this song played on the radio or on a cassette player. I find it really odd that it was only this year that this song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame or any Hall of Fame for that matter. A fun fact about this track is that Donna Summer sat on this composition for a couple of years and never recorded it.

Zimmer hails from Paris, France and his Soundcloud bio states that his music is a “feel good, body-warming and enthusiastic wave that goes straight to the heart and stays until the end of the night” which I couldn’t find a more apt description of his work.

Enjoy this fresh throwback best served in a tropical environment or mood.

Tina Turner – What’s Love Got To Do (Zimmer Rework)