I may be in danger of alienating some readers here, but I really don’t see the appeal of remixes. I know a decent proportion of you will have been directed here from The Hype Machine – where remixes seem to be quite popular – so I guess a fair few of you are remix-connoisseurs, but I just don’t understand it myself. Now don’t get me wrong, a good remix can be an enjoyable listening experience, but stumbling upon the mythic beast that is a “good remix” is a very uncommon occurrence. It seems to me that 99% of them are just plain rubbish. Of course, the joy of being a music blog is that I can bombard you with examples of both good and bad remixes, and I certianly intend to do just that…
The Good Remix
In my eyes a good remix builds on the foundation of a good track and creates a complimentary companion to the original. Most of the good remixes I’m aware of can stand alone as musical works in their own right, but even with the really good ones you’re only getting half the picture. To make a remix is to make a work that is inextricably tied to another piece of work; a musical Castor and Pollux. A good remix from a bad song can be interesting as an academic speculation, but is ultimately as redundant an exercise as a bad remix from a good song (and this is where remixes differ from cover versions; a good cover version from a bad song can be a wondrous achievement).
There are many exponents of the “good remix”; artists from Four Tet to The Postal Service have delivered sterling work in this field, most notably with Kings of Convenience and Feist respectively, but for now I will focus on the Miyauchi Yuri remix of Jeremy Warmsley‘s track If He Breaks Your Heart (full info here). This remix does butcher the harmonic content of the song by flattening it beyond belief, but even that is a defensible artistic choice. The sparse, angular substance of J-Wo’s original acoustic version is morphed into a lush soundscape by the remixer, but crucially the body of the song remains intact – it’s a song with a definite arc and a “message”*, and both are sill in evidence in the remix. You can listen to the remix and still glean the essence of the original whilst at the same time enjoying a wholly new musical experience.
Jeremy Warmsley – If He Breaks Your Heart (acoustic)
Miyauchi Yuri – If He Breaks Your Heat (remix)
The Bad Remix
As I’ve already established, these appear to be much thicker on the ground than good remixes, and the choices for a salient example are legion. Excellently named BbopNRokstedy[sic**] have the unlucky distinction of being the most recent act to drop a remix in my inbox. This one is a remix of Phoenix‘s excellent track 1901, from their 2009 album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. I’m a bit of a latecomer to the Phoenix party (I finally got around to listening to W.A.P. after their inclusion in The Hype Machine’s 2009 Zeitgeist earlier this month) so you won’t find a full review here at EbM, but suffice it to say the record’s a triumph.Alas the same cannot be said for the remix…
Here the relationship between original and remix is very slender indeed; it appears that BbopNRokstedy, in their infinite wisdom, have simply cut a couple of brief snippets from the vocal of 1901 and then sampled them repeatedly over a godawful dance track. Any trace of the original’s structure or arc has been thoroughly removed, and that this outfit have the gall to call this abomination a “remix” beggars belief. Now I realize I’m beginning to sound somewhat vitriolic at this point, but then that’s the very reason I’m writing this post. This kind of behaviour really annoys me***; I really enjoy listening to a good remix, but there’s no way of telling if a remix is going to be any good or not other than by actually listening to the thing.
But of course there is, really. There’s at least a 99% chance that a remix is going to unlistenably terrible, and with those odds it’s far better to simply steer clear of of them altogether…
Phoenix – 1901
BbopNRokstedy – 1901 (remix)
*I know, I know; I’ll let you make your own minds up on that front…
**Well, the thought behind the name is excellent, even if the execution is appalling.
***almost as much as an American spell checker that seems to have forgotten the point of “…our” – color, flavor, and behavior are not words!
Eaten by Monsters 
22 January 2010 at 6:44 pm
In my own opinon you shouldn’t just sit there and pretty much chew apart these two people for wanting to try something new to a song that they probably do enjoy. Also I don’t see you writing about La Riots, Felix Cartal or even the Crookers for making remixes of other peoples songs. Honestly you shouldn’t even look at the word remix or even think about how a song could be a remix, just listen to what the song has to offer and judge it by that. And to bbopnrokstedy I hope this guy doesn’t ruin what y’all have because if I can say so myself i’m a big fan!
22 January 2010 at 7:26 pm
I agree with her. Why post songs you don’t like? Either blog it or don’t blog it if you hate it.
22 January 2010 at 7:35 pm
remixes are great! you sound like a tool that beats off to the postal service alone in your room but thats cool.
22 January 2010 at 10:42 pm
Kaitlyn: I would write about other artists who indulge in the mysterious alchemy that is the “remix”, but I just don’t have either the time, patience or inclination to examine every remix I dislike. I chose BbopNRockstedy merely to illustrate a general point about most remixes; and at the end of the day they sent that track to me – it was in my inbox and I took time out of my day to listen to their music. It’s great that you really like them, and I’m sure they’ll love you forever now, but I just didn’t like their stuff. And to be honest, that’s ultimately a subjective decision on my part. They obviously have fans (like yourself and Jerry and randy) who love their stuff, so it must have some value to someone somewhere, but I hate it.
Jerry: This idea of “only write about it if you like it” seems to be popular throughout the blogosphere, but I can’t condone it. I (pretentiously, maybe) feel that it’s my duty to write about things I don’t like; it gives more meaning to my positive reviews and balances out the blog. It gives readers a reference point to my tastes and opinions – the music I hate defines me just as much as the music I love.
randy [sic]: I think what I’d say to you has been said far more eloquently here…
22 January 2010 at 11:13 pm
Well, as a blogger who doesn’t post on music she doesn’t like, I will still defend Tom’s position to do so here. Yes, indeed, what we find unappealing does define us as music freaks just as much as what turns us on!
BUT, I think he’s making a much bigger point here that is being lost on you, lovely fans of BnR (and bless you for your support of them, really, I mean that sincerely, all artists should have fans who track down blog posts and defend them!) The point here is that remixing a song is a craft, one that takes skill much like songwriting does. And some have more skill in it than others.
Discerning who has skill in remixing is of course based on personal taste as well as on techinical knowledge and Tom has given his reasons for his choice in this post. So attack his taste on those counts. Calling him a wanker isn’t really fair or mature now is it? 🙂
I do post remixes occasionally; I post the ones that turn me on. Some are technically brilliant, I think. Others are pure garbage but I like them anyway. Hey, I still listen to Journey records and sing into a hairbrush in front of my bathroom mirror. So what do you expect? xoxo
23 January 2010 at 4:53 am
Tom- Im not in anyway trying to say what you wrote is complete garbage because like you said it’s your opinion and i choose to respect that. I just thought it was odd how you just pointed them out and not add other artist.
Tart- And for the record i have never even heard of Bbopnrokstedy until i was looking through different blogs. But i don’t think their song is horrible at all (and thats my opinion).
23 January 2010 at 11:23 am
Kaitlyn: In a way, I suppose you have a valid point. The whole point of this post was to express my frustration and annoyance at what I see as a surfeit of mediocre music cluttering up my inbox. BbopNRokstedy happened to be the straw that broke the camel’s back; listening to their track brought my irritation to boiling point – so much so that I had to vent on the blog – but they’re simply just a symptom of the problem.
I knew when I wrote the post that it would most likely polarise opinion, and I’m quietly quite pleased that something of a debate has emerged. Ultimately I’m bound to think that you’re wrong and I’m right, but this post is a far richer and more nourishing read because you’ve taken the time to write some measured and thought-out criticism (take note, randy).
23 January 2010 at 2:47 pm
Sorry to sound all Adornian, but with Tom most remixes are for c@%ts*. Especially the ones that are ‘written’ (and I use that term loosely) in the wrong key to the actual song…sort it out guys.
I will celebrate some of the more interesting takes on the remix though, Grey Album just as one example. Unfortunately most aren’t anywhere near that level though.
*edited by Tom; my parents read this blog so I’d rather keep it clean…
23 January 2010 at 2:51 pm
Also, unsurprisingly, it appears that the ‘bad remix’ has been taken off the blog…tut tut
23 January 2010 at 4:33 pm
Right then, Andy, you foul-mouthed reprobate… it was a technical glitch that meant the Bad Remix link was broken, so you can hear/download it now.
I think the Grey Album is more of a mashup than a remix, but I take your point. You’ll notice that the BbopNRokstedy creation is all in Am (all white notes on a keyboard), but then so is the original 1901. But have a mosey on down to their myspace and you’ll be able to hear (if you can stomach it) yet another spurious remix – this time of La Roux‘s Bulletproof. And guess what? They use nowt but the white notes yet again, and this time they cannot be excused: Bulletproof is certainly not in Am or C! And all they’ve done is put a shoddy filter on the original track before plonking their simplistic programing over the top. To quote Mr. Knightly, “badly done, BbopNRokstedy. Badly done, indeed!”.
When I first wrote this post I was willing to concede that maybe BbopNRokstedy could have some merit outside of the track in question, but now I’m not so sure. It seems that when judged on pure musical-theory issues they’re woefully ignorant – can they not hear that their track just sounds totally wrong with the La Roux vocal on it? You don’t need any fancy music qualifications to hear that it’s just plain discordant. I’m not usually one to preen or gloat, but I can’t help feeling this rather proves my point.
And Andy, it could be that I’m less well-read than you, but I can’t recall Ol’ Theodore ever using the C word, but then perhaps you’re paraphrasing?
23 January 2010 at 5:28 pm
Yeah maybe not but he was an elitist little shit!
23 January 2010 at 5:32 pm
Alright, I’ll take the bait. It’s been at least ten years since I read Adorno on music (I’m much more up to date on Bourdieu’s notion of habitus engendering taste) so do expound, will ya?
23 January 2010 at 5:35 pm
Just given this a good read, and it is a good read… It’s interesting to see what people think of remixes that aren’t necessarily part of the ‘remix culture’, which it is at the end of the day.
I’ve been a producer/remixer for many years and even though it goes against my profession, I totally agree with you Tom. Remixes can be very good, and very lucrative for labels if done properly – the problem is these days is labels don’t look around for good remixes – they merely go with the names that are current. And unfortunately, with remixes being so ‘easy’ to make these days with the rise of the home studio and digital revolution, there are A LOT of sh*t remixes out there, which makes posts like this more likely to come up. These days, anyone can sit in front of their laptop, grab an acapella and lay it over either another tracks instrumental, or a badly produced beat that they’ve made in Reason or FL Studio.
Going back to my point of remixes being very lucrative for labels, this is really the point of a remix; to make a particular song appeal to someone that wouldn’t normally get into the original. So the label can then license all of the remixes out to various compilations that are very genre-specific, and those people that wouldn’t be a fan of the artist/song would go out and ‘buy’ the remix version… If it’s any good!?
I must say, I’ve seen some very very bad examples of this as of late. Let me admit one of my guilty pleasures… I have always been a bit of a follower of Craig David, I can justify this another time. However, I was sent the remix package of his new single this week and I have to say it was one of the most boring and uninspiring things I’ve ever heard. Not only is the original REALLY bad, but the remixes are just as bad if not worse. There’s 4 House mixes, which all do very similar job, and they’re all boring as hell, so these remixes don’t do anything for this single, and this is coming from someone who is very much into that whole scene. This is just one example.
I could write all day about this but I’ll save up some space on your browser for someone else. I guess my point here is that there are good remixes out there, but with the music industry being the way it is you really do have to search them out. And unfortunately, due to how easy it is to make, upload and share music now, the majority of remixes you come across will be rubbish.
Just my 2 cents/pence.
23 January 2010 at 5:54 pm
So Martin, have your experiences been anything like this? “we like the last track you did. We want it exactly like that, but different.” I don’t know who made that clip, but it was done using this.
I think you’re definitely right about it being too easy to make a remix these days – it seems that market saturation is making good remixes harder and harder to find; hence my original claim that I’ve stopped looking entirely. It’s a shame to think that there’s good, original material that I’m passing by completely, but I’ve reached the point where I’d rather miss out entirely than go through the effort of trawling through all the bad stuff…
23 January 2010 at 6:13 pm
Hey Tom! It’s been a while… hope you’re good!
Funnily enough I was sent that video yesterday and it is very true to form. I’ve sat there with A&R guys, managers etc and had pretty this exact conversation, so it’s actually good to know it’s not just me! haha. This is what it’s come down to though – someone has a big record then suddenly their remixing for everyone and they all sound like that big record. Luckily there are a few that can either get away with it because they are actually very good remixers, or don’t fall into this trap.
I think the problem we have these days is that music is so easy to obtain. I started DJing when I was 9 (young, I know) and I loved going to my local record shop and physically searching for records, looking out for good mixes that would make my set that weekend that out a bit. Nowadays, everything is handed to you on a plate, whether it be from iTunes, Beatport, Simon Cowell, or whatever, and people just aren’t used to/dont know how or where to search for good music. You’re simply given the top records of the moment as soon as you start looking and thats what people buy.
We can talk about bad remixes until the cows come home, but I’d like to highlight a very good remix, which served it’s purpose entirely; The Justice remix of MGMT’s “Electric Feel” (I would link to it but I’m crap with html) is one of my favourite remixes – it opened up the track to a whole different group of people AND enhanced the original at the same time. For me, the remix was actually better than the original, even though I really like MGMT.
Plenty more good examples out there too, as I say though you do have to do a bit of searching, which people won’t do unless they’re part of that culture…
4 October 2010 at 10:24 am
[…] about this record. I already caused some controversy on these pages when I announced that I unilaterally despised all remixes*, but I’m a big fan of Mogwai’s back catalogue (although I’ve yet to hear this […]
27 July 2012 at 8:20 am
[…] each one subtly altered for each band, and each consists of four tracks, one of which is a remix (*shudder*) and one of which is a vinyl only cut. The subscription has now run its course, and having already […]