Tag: sunset

Categories
Music Remixes

Reflex – Sunset (Club Mix)

REFLEX - SUNSET EP COVER 

I know for many of you summer may still seem far off. Beijing, Toronto and Paris are hovering in the 50s, and sweaters still abound across the northern and southern climbs. But the season has unequivocally arrived in Rio and LA, my current location. And with it, my current musical artifact fixation, the summer jam.

Ready for another?

French synth-pop duo Reflex have popped up on EMPT before, and if you liked them then, you’ll like them now. “Sunset (Club Mix)” is classic Ibiza day-party fare: simple, light beat, a pluck bass that doesn’t take over, staccato synth stabs, shimmering pads, and of course sexy Euro-tinged vocals that receive a full chop’n’sample treatment at the drop.

The band tags all of their tracks as “seadisco.” They’ve apparently coined this subgenre, as I couldn’t find any other references on the entire internetz! EMPT regulars know of my constant crusade against sub-genre proliferation, and I’m going to have to bring the hammer down here, though gently. If seadisco means music with a disco beat that works well at beach parties, I at least get where they’re coming from. But then, isn’t that just about all disco or electro-pop? Reflex gets credit for coining a phrase and pushing it, because it remains true that bands need some sort of differentiator or aspect to which fans can cling to separate them from the pack. As much as I like Reflex, it’s undeniable that there are a ton of bands that sound similar (La Roux and Yelle lead this particular pack). 

Ludmila Cassar’s vocals are the real deal though. Good production is easier to come by than a talented vocalist, and she combines all the pieces you look for: consistent delivery (as in, she has a voice and sticks to it across all tracks), recognition that this isn’t the place for deep lyricism, and sex appeal. Nothing wrong with having a gorgeous French woman fronting your band.

If you dig the Club Mix, check out the original track (it’s much more dance-floor oriented). Scratch that, check out ALL of Reflex’s remixes and original work. The songs all sound similar, but different enough that the similarity is a good thing. Dive into the short video below for an EP preview and an awesome snapshot of Reflex’s Asia tour. SPOILER: it includes an infinity pool on the 40th floor of a skyscraper. Enjoy.

Reflex – Sunset (Club Mix)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1FgPMF6gUU]

Categories
Music Remixes

The xx – Sunset (Jamie xx Edit)

Sunsetxx

 

I don’t know what it is about The xx but they keep delivering singles and re-edits that I cannot stop listening to. The minimalist style allows for other artists to come in and fool around, but what I appreciate the most about this band is their willingness to play around with their own stuff. One lesson I learned in art school is that no work is ever completely finished. This can be a burden to some (me being one) it is also a freedom. An idea has a beginning point, but its end is infinite. Ideas evolve and grow as they progress. You can reach what feels like the end of a project, but really you’ve reached a point in the idea where you and it need to rest. This idea works sonically as well and The xx certainly aren’t afraid to breathe new life into their already lush tracks.

I always thought it was sad
the way we act like strangers.
After all that we had
we act like we had never met.”

This morning I had a conversation with of my best friends. We went back and forth relishing in the truth they had just discovered. A veil had been lifted on a (now) one-sided relationship and liberated vibes were pulsing. This track is a conversation between two ex-lovers and their perspective on the failed relationship. Oliver Sim and Romy Croft exchange verses with words of regret and a little dash of shame. Croft, it seems, is like my best friend – hoping that something will come about again…that they’ll somehow rekindle the flame. Her perspective, however, sees beyond the blind hope and knows that what’s done is done. Now it’s mere frustration towards the relationship, for who wants to see a person they’ve had history with and feel inadequate?

Jamie xx’s re-vamp of this track spins it into a melodic dance tune. While the story unfolds xx provides a beat that makes it okay to let go and shake it all off. There should be celebration in finding truth, no matter how unfortunate it may be.

The xx – Sunset (Jamie xx Edit)

Categories
Music Remixes

Gotye ft. Kimbra – Somebody That I Used To Know (KLar & PF Remix)

The elasticity of this song’s lyrics and vocals is proven when it can reach the far far away balearic sea’s sounds. You know, because of the whole balearic disco genre that this supposedly belongs to. And who else than the master of balearic disco than KLar to treat us this beautifully served dish.

When you can take such an overplayed and overmixed song like Gotye’s STIUTK and produce such an enjoyable rendition that knows no situational-listening-rules, you deserve to get shared and spread around. I know this isn’t the first or second time you hear a KLar remix or edit here on EMPT but I guess it was an unsaid consensus the EMPT team reached when I expressed my love for this find.

There’s nothing overly complex about the production of this version. The guitar (which has the strongest responsibility for the whole balearic vibe), the echoed synth chords and all that’s in between give way to a musical sun-bathing session that doesn’t get you sunburnt no matter how long you expose yourself to it.

If your first thought upon hearing play is a Blank & Jones déjà vu, you’re not alone. I don’t know if balearic disco is a fad or here to stay, but while we all figure it out, let us enjoy this with eyes closed and letting our imagination run wild.

Gotye ft. Kimbra – Somebody That I Used To Know (KLar & PF Remix)

Categories
Music

The XX – Sunset (Libations & Oscillations Bootleg)

If you were on the fence at all regarding The xx‘s second release Coexist, two things could push your opinion to the favoring side: experiencing them live, and absorbing this Sunset remix.

As performers, The xx have a successful live show down pat.  I still can’t shake the stunning visuals and sonic precision I witnessed.   As the closing act for this year’s remote and easily enjoyable Treasure Island Music Festival in the Bay Area, the UK minimal electro-pop trifecta (Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim, producer Jamie XX) provided the tens of thousands of Treasure Island visitors with an aural climax to a weekend that included EMPT favorites like Tycho, Toro Y Moi, Divine Fits, and more.  Who was headlining? The xx. Oh sure, there were doubts.  You could hear comments in the air; people love the band but weren’t sure if they could pull off the climax that was needed to top off a weekend of high energy acts.  The xx surely put to rest any trepidation, proving themselves a worthy headliner by blowing the crowd away.  They were comfortably straddling the line between melancholy and energetic. Witnessing their interpretation of Sunset in a live setting was a reintroduction to a friend I’d met before, and I enjoyed the song’s company in a brand new context.  Sometimes, it takes seeing the band communicate their song to you live to gain a full appreciation of it.

Then we have this entrapping  remix.  By spreading Jamie xx’s two-step beat over the majority of the composition including the empty spaces left behind by the original, Austin producers Libations & Oscillations prep Sunset for its venture onto the dance floor.  Personally, I’d accept its industrial groove and would move willingly.  Dropping modest new-age piano riffs and synth pads gently into the mix, they graduate it to a wider space, lifting it closer to the atmosphere just as Felix Baumgartner descends in the opposite direction.

The XX – Sunset (Libations & Oscillations Bootleg)

Categories
Music Remixes

Erika Spring – Hidden (Jensen Sportag Remix)

I don’t know if it’s the aftermath of a typical weekend party that makes our bodies yearn for music like this. I like to think of these tunes as the bloody mary, the fruit smoothy, the Alka Seltzers or whatever recovery method you use to get your body back to it’s natural feel-good state.

Erika Forster is a vocalist and keyboardist for Brooklyn based synth-pop trio Au Revoir Simone while Jensen Sportag is a Nashville production duo that takes Erika’s first single from her EP and applies some disco melodies over her cooing voice. I have added the original as a bonus so you can appreciate the difference from one version to the other. On her solo project she goes by the name Erika Spring as it is somewhat a departure from her work with ARS. Her EP’s production is more dense and complex musically, her voice is constant in her style and timbre.

Jensen used the perfect words to describe their version:

“It’s disco made for rolling down the river.”

They also gave this interesting insight into their remix and laid out some food for thought about where we are right now in this world and how it affects us. Here’s the complete existential quote of sorts for your pleasure:

“While working on our remix of Erika Spring’s Hidden we talked a lot about the difficulty and delay of connecting deeply with another person in this era of easyshare information. The resulting cultural marginalization makes a mirror effect that’s compounded by our ever increasing image-consciousness. What’s the best way to hide one particular thing? To surround it with a million similar things. Like murmurating starlings and synchronized fireflies, we’re hidden in our own sameness, finding it harder to really know what’s in one another’s heart.”

Too bad it’s only 4 minutes and 26 seconds long because it could soundtrack a complete afternoon like this. On that note, try putting it on repeat a couple of times. You’ll see -or hear- how it sounds slightly different in every play. I find that really special and not many songs can do that.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

It’s due out on July 10 as a 5 track EP on Cascine Records.

Erika Spring – Hidden (Jensen Sportag Remix)

BONUS:

Erika Spring – Hidden