While providing a glut of b-sides, remixes and forgotten tracks has been an interesting endeavor for the past 8 months, we’ve decided to go in a bit of a different direction with the blog on Wednesdays.  Quite often the top spots on Hype Machine are filled with remixes and mash-ups, and so we’re going to take the time to talk about the ones that are actually worthy to stand alongside the original.  We don’t have a quirky or clever name to this point, so if you can come up with something, let us know in the comments.  Or, we’ll just call something obvious and dull.  With that said, let’s get after the inaugural track – the High Contrast Remix of Adele’s “Hometown Glory:”

After the nervous, twitching first ten seconds or so, when the song being reworked is still unrecognizable, High Contrast seems to finally figure out exactly where it is he’s planned on going with the track, and then it all starts to drop in over the rest of the first 90 seconds – synthed strings, drums, Adele’s vocals – until it crashes together and becomes a proper club banger, as they say.  (We don’t say that, except in jest, and you shouldn’t either.)

It continues on in that manner for another couple minutes, just looping vocals and beats.  And if that were it, we wouldn’t have thought much of it.  But then it all drops out, and it becomes breathtaking, really.  The music slows and becomes funereal, haunting – a few sad chords played on a piano over a distant sounding chorale – before it all starts back in again, this time with the piano sticking around for the remainder of the song.

The original is a powerful song in and of itself, and was never a song that we would have thought about being re-imagined as something to dance to.  But, it’s that lack of foresight/innovation that holds us back from being producers of any kind.  We can tell you that a song is good, even tell you why it’s good, but we could never recreate the magic ourselves.  Thanks to the obvious talent of High Contrast, we don’t need to.

Adele – Hometown Glory (mp3) from 19

Adele – Hometown Glory (High Contrast Remix) (mp3) from Confidential (9 bucks for 30 songs?!)

This week is home of the under-the-radar type releases, with the interesting ones (at least to me) from Monsters of Folk, Noisettes, Islands and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart EP.   (If you’ve been paying attention, you know that Amazon already has the Monsters of Folk available for download.  And even if you weren’t, you can still get it early if you so desire.)

Anyway, check the full list over at Amazon if you were looking for something that you don’t see listed here.  As always, grab a couple of memory-jogging tracks after the list, and have yourself an excellent week.

Harry Connick Jr. – Your Songs
Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk
David Gray – Draw the Line
Brand New – Daisy
Mika – The Boy Who Knew Too Much
Rufus Wainwright – Milwaukee at Last!!!
Noisettes – Wild Young Hearts
Deadmau5 – For Lack of a Better Name
Basement Jaxx – Scars
Billy Talent – Billy Talent III
Sea Wolf – White Water, White Bloom
Islands – Vapours
Owen – New Leaves
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Higher Than the Stars EP
The Twilight Sad – Forget the Night Ahead

Noisettes – Never Forget You (mp3) from the forthcoming Wild Young Hearts

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Higher Than the Stars (St. Etienne Visits Lord Spank Remix) (mp3) from the forthcoming Higher Than the Stars EP

Rufus Wainwright – Instant Pleasure (mp3) from Big Daddy: Music from the Motion Picture