After a week off from the remix, we’re back with an easygoing reinterpretation of an early 2009 track:

At first blush, Vetiver isn’t the type of group anyone would expect to be remixed.  Their music is squarely in the folk vein, filled with strumming guitars and softly delivered vocals.  Back at the beginning of the year, their song “Everyday” from their 2009 release Tight Knit was on constant repeat, and will probably be in the Top 5 of my most played songs for the year.  Tight Knit wasn’t filled with similar songs to “Everyday,” however, and as is often the case with songs that are loved that intensely, the album didn’t personally impress.  The only other track that really stood out was an up-tempo, bouncier one titled “More of This.”

The Neighbors RMX of “More of This” (done by Vetiver singer Andy Cabic himself) strips the song of its original swing-your-partner feel and gives it a much more laid-back, spacey delivery.  It loops the instrumentation, echoes the vocals off of the walls and slows things down.  It’s an interesting take on an already solid number.

Vetiver – More of This (mp3) from Tight Knit

Vetiver – More of This (Neighbors RMX) (mp3) from the forthcoming More of This 12″

This is a remix I’ve had bouncing around since the beginning of March after “1901” was literally posted on that many blogs, including ours.  This particular remix is not as upbeat as the original track, but it’s equally as compelling.  Build’s take on the track is darker, understated, and does away with the pop elements of Phoenix’s version.  When played in succession, it shows just how versatile the track really is – which is undoubtedly why it’s one of the most remixed tracks of 2009.  (Is there another that comes close?  Empire of the Sun’s “Walking on a Dream?”  Maybe.)

Looking around the interwebs for info about the remixing artist, I discovered that the moniker “Build” has been retired in favor of much the much less hipster sounding “Shadows of Thunder” as of last week.  There are no tracks posted for Shadows of Thunder, but I kind of hope that it’s exclusively 80’s hair metal remixes.  Or maybe it’s the musical equivalent of this guy’s art.  Time will tell, I suppose.

Phoenix – 1901 (mp3) from Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Phoenix – 1901 (Build Remix) (mp3)

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?!)